Activity

• The government of Canada provides direct funding to NGOs through Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
• Indirect funding to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza is provided via the United Church of Canada, Oxfam Italia, CARE International, and various UN agencies. Many of these NGOs are involved in anti-peace activities such as incitement and BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions); some also have reported ties to terrorist organizations.
• All funding amounts listed are in Canadian dollars ($ CAD).

Lack of Transparency

• Global Affairs Canada maintains an online database of Canadian-funded projects, but does not list any secondary project partners – reflecting a lack of transparency and accountability.
• In response to an Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) request, GAC acknowledged that it does not maintain organized records of secondary project partners, and provided a technical explanation: “There is no field in SAP¹ to identify local NGOs or other organizations that may be considered sub-implementers. There is no other database that collects this information systematically.”

Developments Since the October 7th Atrocities

• In the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, the Canadian government announced it would match donations, up to $10 million, for the Humanitarian Coalition’s Gaza Humanitarian Emergency Appeal. This was part of Canada’s allocation of “$50 million in humanitarian assistance funding announced on October 21, 2023.”
  • The Humanitarian Coalition comprises 12 NGOs, self-described as “trusted Canadian humanitarian aid organizations.” However, NGO Monitor research shows that a number of coalition members have links to proscribed terror groups or partner locally in the West Bank and Gaza with NGOs affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). 
    • World Vision – On June 15, 2016, Mohammad El-Halabi, the manager of operations for World Vision in Gaza, was arrested by Israeli authorities. He was accused of diverting approximately $50 million over ten years from World Vision’s Gaza budget to the Hamas terrorist organization, including creating humanitarian projects and fictitious agricultural associations to act as a cover for the hijacking of monies and materials for Hamas. On June 15, 2022, the Be’er Sheva District Court convicted El-Halabi of contact with a foreign agent, membership in a terror organization, illegal use of property for terror purposes, possession of weapons and ammunition, illegal military training, and providing information to the enemy. (For additional details, see NGO Monitor’s analysis: “Verdict in case of Mohammad El-Halabi/World Vision Diversion of Funds to Hamas.”)
    • Islamic Relief Canada – Islamic Relief Canada is an “affiliate” of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW). On June 19, 2014, Israel’s Defense Minister declared IRW to be illegal, based on its alleged role in funneling money to Hamas, and banned it from operating in Israel and the West Bank. According to news reports, the decision was made after “the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the coordinator for government activities in the territories, and legal authorities provided incriminating information against IRW.” In January 2021, the US State Department cut ties with IRW due to “anti-Semitism exhibited repeatedly by IRW’s leadership.” Islamic Relief Canada states that it works “alongside the Ministry of Health” in Gaza. This is a Hamas entity. 
      • Since 2006, Islamic Relief Palestine (IRPAL) has cooperated with the Al-Falah Society. According to the Meir Amit Institute, the Al-Falah Society Charitable is one of “Hamas’s charitable societies.” Al-Falah is run by Ramadan Tanboura – according to Haaretz, a “well-known Hamas figure.” According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Hamas held a reception for Tanboura “on his return from an eight-month fund-raising trip to the Gulf States. Senior Hamas figures also participated.”
      • IRPAL partners with the Gaza Zakat Committee (GZC), also known as the Islamic Zakat Society (IZS). IZS works closely with the Hamas government and is managed by Hamas preacher Hazem Al-Sirraj. According to Dr. Emanuel Schaeublin, a lecturer at the University of Zurich, GZC has ties to Fatah, the PFLP, and Hamas. Islamic Relief UK and Islamic Relief Canada are both named by IZS as its patrons.
      • In 2006, IRW Gaza coordinator Iyaz Ali, a Pakistani-born British national, was arrested and charged with transferring funds and assistance to “Hamas institutions and organizations, including the Al Wafa and Al Tzalah associations, which have been outlawed in Israel. He also admitted that he worked in Jordan and cooperated with local Hamas operatives.” 
    • CARE International – CARE has provided funding to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Health Work Committees (HWC), and Abdel Shafi Community Health Association (ACHA). All three of these NGOs have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). 

Direct Funding

• Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC)
  • The government of Canada claimed (October 2020) that “While Canadian-funded projects with experienced international and Canadian partner organizations have included UAWC as a sub-implementer in the past, we do not currently fund the organization, directly or indirectly.” However, Canada funds a $15.6 million project (2016-2022) with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that lists UAWC as an implementing partner.
  • In 2019, according to a UAWC Facebook post, Canada funded a UAWC project to “strengthen the steadfastness of women farmers and cooperative work.” Due to the lack of GAC transparency, it is unclear how much funding UAWC received.
  • In 2018, Canada funded a UAWC project dedicated to the “restoration of land and construction of 16 house gardens in Khan Yunis.” Neither GAC nor UAWC discloses funding details for the project.
  • The Union of Agricultural Work Committee (UAWC) is identified by Fatah as an official “affiliate” and by USAID-engaged audit as the “agricultural arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared UAWC a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.” For more information on UAWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Agricultural Work Committees Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
    • Samer Arbid, UAWC’s accountant from 2016 until his arrest in 2019, was indicted on 21 counts in Israeli military court. Arbid is on trial for commanding a PFLP terror cell that carried out a bombing, murdering an Israeli civilian, and injuring her father and brother. According to the indictment against him (on file), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device. On August 30, 2020, the PFLP referred to Arbid as a “prisoner and commander,” and “one of the heroes of the Bubeen operation” — referring to the August 2019 bombing.
    • Abdel Razeq Farraj, UAWC’s “Finance and Administration Director” is also currently standing trial. According to his indictment (on file), Razeq Farraj held a senior PFLP post and authorized the August 23, 2019 bombing.
• In 2018-2023, Global Affairs Canada is providing $4.8 million to United Church of Canada: Kairos Initiatives for a project titled “Women of Courage – Women, Peace and Security. Twenty percent (approximately $950,000) is earmarked for the West Bank and Gaza in partnership with Wi’am Palestinian Conflict Resolution and Transformation Center.
  • Wi’am
    • Contrary to the rhetoric of peacebuilding and empowering women, Wi’am promotes BDS campaigns against Israel, utilizes “apartheid” rhetoric, and seeks to demonize Israel through Christian theology.
    • The group also utilizes antisemitic rhetoric, stating that  “We [the Palestinians] are the victims of the victims of the holocaust, and thus its direct victims…The Palestinian people are dying on the Cross…Palestinians are taken from the Cross-to hide the Israeli Crimes. In an attempt to silence our voice, the Israeli occupation imposes sanction and siege on our people…We are laid in the Tomb” (emphasis added).
  • United Church of Canada
    • The United Church of Canada has “sent over 25 Ecumenical Accompaniers” to the West Bank for Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). EAPPI sends volunteers to “witness life under occupation.” Upon completion of the program, the volunteers return to their home countries and churches where many engage in anti-Israel advocacy, including advocating for BDS campaigns in churches, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and other delegitimization strategies.
    • In August 2015, UCC passed a resolution calling for “initiating and developing a program of education and advocacy in cooperation with our partners, related to divestment from and economic sanctions against all corporations and institutions complicit in and benefiting from the illegal occupation.”
  • KAIROS Canada
    • • On November 17-28, 2019, KAIROS Canada brought a delegation of church leaders to Israel and the West Bank where the group met with pro-BDS organizations, authors of the antisemitic Kairos Palestine document, and other individuals and NGOs involved in anti-Israel delegitimization campaigns. KAIROS notes that the delegation was “ably hosted by KAIROS partner Wi’am Palestinian Centre for Conflict Transformation.” The delegation met with Coalition of Women for Peace and Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), as well as activists from EAPPI and Sabeel. The group also met with Bishop Atallah Hanna and Wi’am’s Lucy Talgieh, both of whom are authors of the 2009 Kairos Palestine document, as well as Hanan Ashwari. The Kairos Palestine Document repeatedly denies the Jewish historical connection to Israel in theological terms; rationalizes and trivializes terrorism against Israelis; promotes BDS; and is considered by many to be antisemitic.
      • In May 2013, issued a proclamation of support for the United Church of Canada’s call to members of the “ecumenical and justice community” to urge foreign affairs and trade ministers to impose “proper identification of Israeli settlement products in Canadian stores and an end to tax exemptions for products from the settlements.”
      • In December 2009, according to media reports, CIDA rejected grant renewal applications from KAIROS Canada following allegations that KAIROS took “a leadership in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign.” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney reportedly said that the “Church-based group lost its federal funding because of its position on the Middle East, more particular because of its anti-Israel stand.”
• 7amleh
  • In 2023, Canada granted $30,000 to Israeli NGO 7amleh.
  • Since 2016, 7amleh has campaigned against Facebook’s, Twitter’s, and Instagram’s  policies of taking down posts featuring incitement to violence, support for terror, and antisemitism, arguing that social media platforms “all too often lead to the silencing and erasure of critical voices,” “censor[ing] Palestinian voices,” and attacking “free speech.”
  • 7amleh board members and officials have used Facebook to celebrate violence against Israelis. 
  • On October 7, Board Member Neveen Abu Rahmoun posted on Facebook, “The Palestinian resistance is imposing a new stage since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa flood operation by resistance fighters infiltrating into numerous Israeli neighborhoods in the settlements, by creating points of contact, and by firing rockets of the resistance. Israel, in its turn, is constrained by this and has announced a state of high mobilization for war. The message of the resistance is clear, it has started and it shall escalate and shall impose a new reality” (emphases added).
• Ma’an Development Center.
  • In 2023, Ma’an Development Center received $1.5 million from GAC  for “Building Farmers Resiliency, and Increasing Protection and Access to Agricultural assets.”
  • In the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, Ma’an Development Center was a signatory on a statement calling to “emphasize that the root causes of these events is the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel.” According to the NGO, “We consider the flagrant unconditional support the U.S and European officials are offering Israel occupation while ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people as complicity in Israeli human rights violations and crimes against humanity, including the crime of apartheid. It is the international community’s failure to hold the Israel occupation accountable for its crimes that have led to the current situation.”
  • In May 2018, Ma’an Development Center employee Ahmad Abdallah Aladini was killed in the violence on the Gaza border. Aladini was a “comrade” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. According to the PFLP, Aladini was active against the “Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip.”
• Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
  • In 2023, Canada provided NRC with $1 million for its “humanitarian program.”
  • NRC leads massive and unprecedented political campaigns exploiting the Israeli legal system. In sharp contrast to NRC’s ostensibly humanitarian agenda, this massive program focuses on some of the most complex and sensitive political issues in the Arab-Israeli context. (Read NGO Monitor’s report “Flooding the Courts: The Norwegian Refugee Council’s European-Funded Proxy War.”)
  • One of NRC’s principle projects in Israel, “Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA),” exploits judicial frameworks to manipulate Israeli policy, bypassing democratic frameworks. Included in ICLA’s program goals is “supporting the PA both locally and nationally on casework.”
• Save the Children
  • In 2023, Canada also provided NRC and Save the Children with $250,000 for “Women and Youth Empowerment, Entrepreneurship and Employment in the West Bank and Gaza.”
  • In May 2018, Save the Children and the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR) sponsored a workshop at the Dar al Huda kindergarten, “Training of Teachers on Positive Discipline in Everyday Teaching.”
    • On May 26, 2018, the Dar al Huda kindergarten in Gaza held a graduation ceremony that included the mock killing and kidnapping of Israelis by children dressed as combatants. The simulation included sophisticated equipment such as drones, body cameras, military fatigues, body armor, and sniper camouflage. Children wore headbands representing Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, and others.
    • According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Dar al Huda held similarly exploitative military-style events in 2017 and 2016.
• Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
  • In 2022, MSF received €10.9 million from Canada.
  • MSF has provided funding to the Abdel Shafi Community Health Association (ACHA), formerly known as the Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip (RCS4GS). ACHA was founded and is directed by senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Other employees have demonstrated support for Palestinian terror groups and their actions. On multiple occasions, ACHA facilities were used by the PFLP to hold events.
  • In November 2023, two MSF doctors, Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Ahmad Al-Sahar, were killed as a result of a strike that hit Al-Awda hospital in Gaza. Al-Awda hospital was run by an NGO linked to the  PFLP terror group, AWDA Health and Community Association (formerly known as the Union of Health Work Committees, or UHWC). (For more information, read NGO Monitor’s report “MSF in Gaza: Terror-linked Employee and Hospital”)
    • Abu Nujaila was the head of the PFLP’s health group, the Democratic Health Association, and has openly supported the PFLP and its violent actions, along with other terrorists who brutally killed Israelis. On October 17, 2021, Abu Nujaila shared a picture of a handwritten stylized text in a notebook that read, “October 17th, when the [gun] silencer cried in joy.” Abu Nujaila wrote, “It was the prettiest day, it was the PFLP’s response, and it was the decree of the people.” He added victory and heart emojis. On October 17, 2001, a PFLP cell directed by PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sa’adat assassinated Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi.
    • On April 28, 2023, Al-Sahar shared a photo of a Hamas “field commander” Mohammed Attallah Al-Sahar, along with a picture of his father in military uniform, and wrote, “Yesterday it was his father and now it is him. May Allah have mercy on them and accept them [in heaven] as martyrs.”
• In 2022, Mennonite Central Committee Canada (MCC) received $6.7 million from GAC.
  • MCC supports BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel and the Kairos Palestine Document, which promotes BDS; denies the Jewish historical connections to Israel in theological terms; and rationalizes, justifies, and trivializes terrorism, calling it “legal resistance.”

Direct Funding from Global Affairs Canada

Indirect Canadian Funding

Oxfam Quebec

• In 2020-2027, Oxfam-Quebec is slated to receive up to $50 million in funding from the Canadian government, of which 10% is earmarked for “volunteer placements” at NGOs based in the West Bank and Gaza.
• In July 2021, Oxfam-Quebec’s Policy and Campaign Analyst Guilia El Dardiry published an op-ed, “In Gaza, Canada’s Words Won’t Be Enough” (French). The article calls for Canada to suspend arms sales to Israel. El Dardiry, who blames Israel exclusively for the conflict, claims this will “reaffirm [Canada’s] reputation as a world leader in the defense of international law.”

Funding via UN Frameworks

Funding to UNICEF

• In 2024, Canada granted $6.7 million to UNICEF for the “Interagency Flash Appeal: Gaza 2023.”

Funding to UN Women

• In 2018-2023, according to Global Affairs Canada, Canada is providing $17.3 million to UN Women for work “eliminating violence against women and girls in West Bank and Gaza.” According to the explanation provided by GAC under “type of aid,” the “Contributions to specific-purpose programmes and funds managed by international organisations (multilateral, INGO).” GAC does not list these “international organisations.”
• According to UN Women, members of its “Civil Society Advisory Group” include representatives from numerous NGOs involved in delegitimization and/or BDS campaigns against Israel, including Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), Al-Haq, PYALARA, and Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA). It is unknown if the Canadian grant is being carried out with any of these or other organizations.

Funding to United Nations Population Fund

• In 2023, Canada granted $787,402 (USD) to the UN Population Fund for “Access to comprehensive gender responsive SRH & GBV services in the West Bank, East Jerusalem & Gaza.” Implementing partners include Abdel-Shafi Community Health Association (ACHA), Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), Women Affairs Center (WAC), and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS).

Funding to the World Food Program

• In 2023, according to the UN-OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service, Canada is providing $3.2 million (USD) to a project with the World Food Programme. According to Canada’s “open.canada.ca” website, Canada is providing millions of dollars to the World Food Programme for unspecified projects, in unspecified regions, and with unspecified partners, reflecting a significant lack of transparency and accountability.
• According to UN-OCHA’s FTS, these projects appear to be part of the WFP’s Food Security Sector programs in the West Bank and Gaza.
  • According to documents published by the Food Security Sector, the Sector distributes funds and partners with NGOs, including UAWC, Ma’an Development Center, and Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC).