Zionist <removed> ZDS

[Opinion. I have, of course, signed this letter asking the Canada Revenue Agency to decertify and withdraw charitable status from Israeli front in Canada.]

How A Letter Writing Campaign Concerning Canadian Zionist Summer Camps Reveals the Prevalence of Zionist <removed> ZDS

Aaron Kreuter

21 May 2026

On February 4th, 2026, Just Peace Advocates led a group of pro-Palestine organizations in launching a letter-writing campaign concerning Zionist Jewish summer camps in Canada, called “When Children’s Camps Support a Genocidal State, It’s Time For A Gigantic Change.”

The goal of the campaign, like a lot of JPA campaigns, was to end governmental “tax breaks and support from camping associations” for Jewish overnight camps that are vocally Zionist, that bring in Israeli soldiers as staff and special visitors, and that support the Israeli state in activities, language learning, holiday celebration, and myriad other ways. (I had nothing to do with the campaign, though I support it entirely.)

JPA identifies “at least 17 overnight summer camps throughout Canada that support the State of Israel in some way.” They make it abundantly clear that “These camps are not problematic because they encourage connection to Jewish identity. Rather, they pose a problem because they encourage support for a genocidal, settler-colonial state.”

The campaign includes as evidence a partial list of camps and their Zionist activities, and also focuses on Joy Levy, the Executive Director of Ontario Camping Association, a self-avowed Zionist, who in May 2025 raised 20,000 dollars “to bring Israeli staff to Canada,” and has posted vile anti-Palestinian and anti-Lebanese racism on her social media accounts.

Declarations from the umbrella camp association—note the attempted sleight-of-hand from “war criminals at camp” to “Jewish contributions to Canada”—address the actual issue the campaign raises: that soldiers from a foreign military actively engaged in war crimes are invited to spend time with impressionable children at tax-deductible, charity-status, government-supported summer camps, where they are encouraged to preach the justness and innocence of an ethnic-nationalist militarized state.

Around 1,500 Israelis served as Jewish camp staff in the summer of 2023 across Turtle Island. Researching that article, I was shocked by how easy it was to find Zionist leaders, both here and in Palestine, boasting about their fund-raising, trainings, and placing of Israeli soldiers and ex-soldiers at camp.

In a long Instagram DM, a staff member at Camp Northland B’nai Brith excoriated me and the essay. It’s worth quoting:

“A children’s summer camp that you have practically labeled with a cross hair for all the crazy terror supporters in our area. I also work in Israeli-Palestinian education trying to bring both peoples together with an understanding for the other side. What made you think it was a good idea to call out a summer camp filled with kids for simply bringing Israelis to camp. They’re people just like you and me. With feelings and emotions and empathy. They’ve just been through hell with compulsory service, some not even in the military yet. These aren’t genocidal soldiers, they’re humans trying to get on with their lives. You’re article is despicable, dangerous, and completely filled with misinformation, disproved libels about Israel and Israelis.”

It is the camps that are responsible; it is camping associations; it is government subsidies; it is the parents. Not to mention that everything I quoted in my article I found after a simple Google search. If you are so worried about how Canadians will react to you having war criminals at your camps, you should try and hide it better.

Not all sufferers of ZDS are Jewish, and not all Jewish people have contracted ZDS; far from it. Besides the underreported and growing number of staunchly pro-Palestinian, antizionist Jews, we have to contend with the fact that plenty of Zionist Jews do see reality, do know the score, are entirely clear about the situation, want to kill every Palestinian in Gaza. Regardless of if you’re detached from reality or firmly in the grip of it, Zionist Jews, their institutions, their representatives, their summer camps, are at least morally, and sometimes legally, complicit in the vast network of crimes against humanity currently being undertaken by Israel.

Why Jewish parents would want to send their children to camps that celebrate these crimes, that normalize Israeli aggression, that paint a picture of innocent victims protecting themselves, is something that we will have to answer for for many generations.

This is why the CRA has revoked the charitable status of Canada Charity Partners, the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association, and JNF Canada and Ne’eman, and is one of the valid avenues to decertify Zionist summer camps. Thousands of Canadians have joined the letter writing campaign, and so can you. They have AI drones, endless rockets, nuclear weapons, a tightly-controlled narrative of lies that plays on our insecurities. We have our commitment to justice for Palestinians, justice for all. We have our voices. I intend to keep using mine.

Edited 43 minutes ago43 min by unblocktheplanet
correction