John Tory put his worst foot forward last Sunday. The future mayor of Toronto foolishly appeared at the Negev Dinner, a huge fundraising affair for the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Tory was joined by another Canadian who should have known better, comic Martin Short.
The JNF is complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.And what is embarrassing for Canadian you get a nice fat tax break for supporting another country’s oppression. Yes,the Canadian Revenue Agency will give you a tax credit even though its contrary to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
The JNF as we know(should not the mayor of Toronto’s largest city be aware of this? ) is a quasi- governmental organization which practices racial discrimination in the buying and selling of land. Palestinians need not apply.Try that in Toronto and you’d be hauled into court.We used to have racist covenants like that but common sense, the rights of citizenship and plain old human dignity ushered such discrimination into the Canadian waste bin.
Alas the rabid pro-Israel Canadian government provides financial and political support to the JNF whose property will not be leased to non-Jews.
A 1998 United Nations Human Rights Council report found that the JNF systematically discriminates against Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of the country’s population.
Why then is the JNF a registered charity in this country?
Why is the “mayor of all the people” clowning around with Martin Short at a JNF dinner? Playing domestic politics at the expense of a long-suffering people is not only insulting and insensitive.In this case it should be illegal.