This group sends Canadians to help the Israeli army. Some say that’s illegal

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This group sends Canadians to help the ******** army. Some say that’s ********

An organization that sends volunteers from Canada — and other parts of the world — to work on ******** military bases is facing a renewed legal challenge, alleging its recruiting efforts violate a federal law against inciting Canadians to join a foreign army.

The non-profit group Sar-El says it has recruited more than 40,000 volunteers from over 30 countries since the *******-****** war broke out last year — to provide logistical support to the ******* Defence Forces (IDF), such as packing supplies and cleaning and repairing equipment.

Daniel, a 42-year-old business owner from Toronto, is one of them.

“For me, it was an opportunity to give back to the brave [********] soldiers who are fighting. It’s a way to get involved with the war effort,” said Daniel, who agreed to share his experience with Radio-Canada on the condition of anonymity to avoid any backlash that could harm his business.

He says he went to ******* as a Sar-El volunteer in February and August, staying both times for five days in an army base in the Negev desert, in the south.

Daniel says he “felt safe at all times,” despite the danger of staying at a military base in the midst of war.

“I went [to *******] with the mentality that what will be, will be.”

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

This picture shows an ******** army training base in Beit Guvrin in central ******* after a reported stabbing ******* in the facility on September 23, 2024.

A car waits to enter an ******** army base in Beit Guvrin, in central *******, on Sept. 23. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

In contrast, in a long post published on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in December 2023, another volunteer who says he is from Montreal, recounts having spent a month alongside ******** soldiers in Eilat, a region southern of *******, on the shores of the Red Sea.

The volunteer, whose identity is not disclosed for privacy reasons, wrote that he was “under rocket ***** close enough and to such an intensity it felt as if the air itself shook.”

“The rockets I had only seen on TV from thousands of miles away were now fully intended to ***** me and my comrades.”

A lawyer handling the legal challenge against Sar-El in Canada says the group’s efforts are a “blatant” violation of federal law, an opinion not shared by prosecutors who previously opted not to pursue the matter.

‘Tourists who want to help’

Radio-Canada tried for several weeks to speak with representatives from Sar-El in ******* and in Canada but they didn’t respond to several interview requests.

An information session for would-be volunteers was organized in Ottawa on Sept. 26. Radio-Canada tried to attend, but organizers refused any media presence.

Sue Potechin, from the Soloway ******* Community Center where the session took place, is listed as the contact person to register for it. She says the volunteers “do support work, doing things that no one else has time to do,” such as “cleaning the kitchen and sorting boxes.”

She says that volunteers are not sent to the front lines with ******** soldiers, who are engaged in wars in the south, against ****** in the Gaza Strip, and in the north, against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The army “doesn’t let you near anything like that,” Potechin said.

The Sar-El program is “basically for tourists who want to help,” she said.

Volunteers also “perform duties such as packing food rations or medical kits, cleaning tanks … [and] changing spare parts,” according to the IDF website.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

******** soldiers wait for a demonstration of skills by special ******** army units at Tel Nof base in central ******* November 14, 2012.

******** military personnel relax at the Tel Nof base in November 2012. Sar-El volunteers live on base under the same conditions as soliders and wear ******** uniforms. (Nir Elias/Reuters)

They live “under the same conditions as the soldiers … and wear army uniforms,” says Sar-El’s website.

Whatever the army needs “the volunteers are doing it,” Sar-El CEO Keren Dahan said in an interview with the ********* channel ******* Broadcasting Service (JBS), published on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in April.

“Without logistics, even the best combat unit cannot win,” she said. “If they’re not eating well, if the ******* is not clean … if they don’t have all the materials they need.”

It is not clear how many Canadians volunteered over the past year. In 2022, the president of the ********* branch told the ********* ******* News website that his organization recruits “between 100 and 150 volunteers” each year.

However, this figure is likely to be higher today. Dahan told JBS that Sar-El’s total recruitment has increased eightfold, to 40,000 people, since the start of the war.

Since it was founded in 1983, Sar-El — a Hebrew acronym meaning “Service for *******” — says it has sent more than 240,000 volunteers to *******.

Reaching out to youths

According to Dahan, the organization’s recruiting strategy has changed over the last two years in order to attract younger volunteers.

“Before, it was always retired IDF [volunteers], old people in their 60s and 70s,” she told JBS. Now, the group is reaching out to youth through schools, synagogues and online.

“We are on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and this is very, very new, we’re doing … a lot of advertising.”

The minimum age to participate is 17, though 16 year-olds can be accepted “with a parent or ****** relative,” according to the website.

The cost to participate is around $120 for one week and $60 for each additional week.

Dahan also says that around 25 per cent of the volunteers are non-*******. “******* needs friends everywhere, it does not matter if they’re ******* or non-*******,” she said.

Daniel, the volunteer from Toronto, is ******* but doesn’t hold the ******** citizenship. He says he was very impressed with the number of non-******* recruits in Sar-El.

“In my group, there were quite a few Canadians … but also people from Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, China,” he said. “We had a guy from South ******* who wasn’t *******. He was a weapons expert.”

The base he was assigned to also had non-Jews in its ranks, Daniel said. “There were Druze but also Israelis who originally came from India.”

Legal challenges

In Canada, the Foreign Enlistment Act prohibits anyone from inciting another person to enlist in the armed forces of a foreign state, unless carried out by diplomats “enlisting… nationals of the countries they represent and not ********* nationals.”

Based on that, a legal challenge was brought against Sar-El in September 2022 by David Mivasair, an Ontario-based ******, and Rehab Nazzal, a Toronto-based artist of ************ descent. They alleged the group is “recruiting or inducing individuals” to volunteer with the IDF.

The case was dropped a couple of months later by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) for “lack of evidence.”

But the case is not closed, according to their lawyer Shane Martinez.

“We are now in the process of appealing,” the PPSC decision, and will take it to the Ontario Court of Appeal on Nov. 7, he said.

“Essentially what we’re saying is that the government acted in bad ******, that they interfered for political purposes,” said Martinez, who also represents the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, a group of pro-************ lawyers.

“Imagine if there was an organization in Canada that was recruiting volunteers for the Russian army — they would go there and they would wear Russian military uniforms, they’d live on Russian bases, they would repair Russian weapons, clean Russian tanks,” he said.

“The government wouldn’t allow it for a second. They’d immediately step in.”

“It’s so blatant. It’s perhaps one of the clearest violations of ********* law in this context that we could possibly think of,” he said.

But the PPSC says there’s no evidence Sar-El Canada “recruits or otherwise induces” anyone to join the IDF.

“As part of the application process, the volunteer acknowledges that they do not intend to serve, join or swear allegiance to the IDF,” wrote Marten Dykstra, counsel for the PPSC, in a letter explaining why it dropped the case.

“While there is a connection between the volunteer and the IDF, there is no evidence of a formal relationship.”

There are currently more than 6,000 Canadians in *******, according to Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

Since August, the federal government has recommended avoiding all travel to ******* because of the war.

“The security situation can deteriorate further without warning,” GAC warns on its website.

However, insecurity in the Middle East does not seem to dampen Daniel’s enthusiasm. He says he would not hesitate to volunteer for a third time with Sar-El.

“It’s important work,” he said. “The IDF need all the help they can get.”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#group #sends #Canadians #******** #army #********

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up