The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has cut off millions of dollars worth of aid to a Christian human rights organization in Toronto that has been accused of pursuing an anti-Israel agenda.
CIDA, which administers foreign aid programs in developing countries in partnership with Canadian organizations, severed its financial relations with KAIROS recently by rejecting its $7-million grant renewal application.
NGO Monitor – a Jerusalem-based group whose objective is to counter non-governmental organizations around the world from promoting anti-Israel campaigns – said that KAIROS supports the Israel divestment and boycott movement in Canada, backs Israel Apartheid Week at Canadian universities and generates hostility to Israel.
KAIROS, an interdenominational church-based group known as the Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative, denies these charges. KAIROS spokesperson Adiat Junaid described them as “patently false,” saying that “attempts to smear our reputation by making such claims are offensive.”
In rejecting the $7 million in funding over four years to KAIROS– which means “the right moment” in ancient Greek – International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda didn’t mention its record on Israel.
Instead, she said KAIROS’ mandate doesn’t meet CIDA’s current priorities.
In the past, KAIROS has taken issue with Canadian mining practices abroad and warned of ecological hazards in the extraction of petroleum from the Alberta tar sands. It has also campaigned against the production of bottled water in Canada.
KAIROS’ executive director, Mary Corkery, said that while it has called for a negotiated end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and criticized the construction of the “separation wall” and the building of settlements beyond the Green Line, it supports Israel’s existence and its “right to live in peace” and “deplores” violence by Israelis and Palestinians.
KAIROS also favours the creation of “a viable and just Palestinian state.”
She added that KAIROS neither supports Israel Apartheid Week nor a boycott of Israel, and will only consider divestment should it be proven that “corporate investments… contribute directly to the suffering” of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Corkery said that KAIROS has funded projects related to non-violence in greater Jerusalem. She cited a program in which Bat Shalom in western Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Centre for Women in eastern Jerusalem work collectively to promote peace.
Corkery said that KAIROS’ criticism of certain Israeli policies is in line with “positions taken regarding human rights concerns in other countries, including Canada, where we have been outspoken on indigenous rights, water, energy, anti-poverty and the rights of migrant workers.”
CIDA’s funding accounted for about 40 per cent of KAIROS’ $4-million annual budget, Corkery said.
KAIROS also receives funding from member groups and churches, foundations, unions and individual donors, and it sometimes gets “project-based grants from other government departments,” she added.
CIDA spokesperson Scott Cantin said in an interview that the Canadian “government is taking measures to make Canada’s international assistance more focused, more efficient and more accountable. CIDA has focused bilateral aid on 20 countries and [has] established three priority themes: food security, children and youth and sustainable economic growth.”
He added, “While we receive many excellent proposals, we cannot possibly fund every one, and we have to make difficult decisions.”
After “due dilligence,” CIDA determined that KAIROS’ proposals don’t conform with its current priorities, Cantin said.
Nonetheless, several of KAIROS’ “member organizations” will continue to receive separate funding from CIDA, he noted.
He wouldn’t comment on “rumours” or “proposals under consideration” that Alternatives – a Montreal-based organization that NGO Monitor has also branded as anti-Israel – would no longer receive CIDA funds.
Corkery said KAIROS has yet to obtain a detailed explanation from CIDA on why funding was terminated after a 35-year relationship.
CIDA’s decision will force KAIROS to end a number of overseas projects, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But its overall program, particularly its work with Canada’s indigenous peoples, will continue, she said.
Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Canada-Israel Committee, said he is pleased by the Ottawa’s decision to cut off KAIROS, charging it has diverted CIDA funds into political advocacy that is anti-Israel.
“I like to believe that the government factored this consideration into its calculations,” he said.
