This group is sending Canadians to help the Israeli army. Some say that is illegal

An organization that sends volunteers from Canada – and other parts of the world – to work at Israeli military bases is facing a renewed legal challenge, alleging that its recruitment efforts violate a federal law against encouraging Canadians to join foreign forces.

The non-profit group Sar-El says it has recruited more than 40,000 volunteers from more than 30 countries since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last year – to provide operational support to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), such as packing supplies and cleaning. and equipment maintenance.

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 [Israeli] fighting soldiers. It’s a way to engage in war,” said Daniel, who agreed to share his experience with Radio-Canada on condition of anonymity to avoid any backlash that could damage his business.

He says he went to Israel as a Sar-El volunteer in February and August, spending five days each at a military camp in the southern Negev desert.

Daniel says he “felt safe all the time,” despite the danger of living in a military base during the war.

“I’m gone [to Israel] in the sense that what will be, will be. “

In contrast, in a long post published on Facebook in December 2023, another volunteer who claims to be from Montreal, recounts that he spent a month with the Israeli army in Eilat, a state in southern Israel, on the coast of the Red Sea.

The volunteer, whose identity has not been disclosed for privacy reasons, wrote that he was “under rocket fire close enough and with such intensity it felt like the air itself was shaking.”

“The rockets I had only seen on television thousands of kilometers away were now aimed at killing me and my colleagues.”

The lawyer leading the legal challenge against Sar-El in Canada says the group’s efforts are a “blatant” violation of federal law, a view not shared by prosecutors who previously chose not to pursue the matter.

‘Guests who want to help’

Radio-Canada tried for several weeks to speak with Sar-El representatives in Israel and Canada but they did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

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

Sue Potechin, from the Soloway Jewish Community Center where the session took place, is listed as the contact person for registration. He says volunteers “do support work, do things that no one else has time for,” like “cleaning the kitchen and sorting through boxes.”

He says the volunteers are not sent to the front with the Israeli army, fighting in the south, against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and in the north, against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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

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

Volunteers also “do tasks such as packing food or medical supplies, cleaning tanks … [and] to replace spare parts,” according to the IDF website.

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

Whatever the soldiers need “volunteers do,” said Sar-El chief Keren Dahan in an interview with the American Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS), published on YouTube in April.

“Without operations, even the best fighting unit will not succeed,” he said. “If they don’t eat well, if the weapon is not clean … if they don’t have all the necessary things.”

It is unclear how many Canadians have volunteered this past year. In 2022, the president of the Canadian branch told the Canadian Jewish News website that his organization recruits “between 100 and 150 volunteers” each year.

However, this number will probably be higher today. Dahan told JBS that Sar-El’s employment numbers have increased eightfold, to 40,000 people, since the start of the war.

Since it was founded in 1983, Sar-El – an acronym in Hebrew for “Service of Israel” – says it has sent more than 240,000 volunteers to Israel.

Reaching out to youth

According to Dahan, the organization’s recruitment strategy has changed over the past two years to attract young volunteers.

“Before, it was always the retired IDF [volunteers]adults in their 60s and 70s,” he told JBS. Now, the group reaches out to young people through schools, synagogues and online.

“We are on Instagram and this is very new, we do … a lot of advertising.”

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

The cost of participation is approximately $120 for one week and $60 for each additional week.

Dahan also says that about 25 percent of the volunteers are non-Jewish. “Israel needs friends everywhere, it doesn’t matter if they are Jewish or not,” he said.

Daniel, a volunteer from Toronto, is Jewish but does not have Israeli citizenship. He says he is very impressed by the number of non-Jews in Sar-El.

“In my group, there were a few Canadians … but also people from Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, China,” he said. “We had a boy from South Africa who is not Jewish. He had knowledge of weapons.”

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

Legal challenges

In Canada, the Foreign Enlistment Act prohibits anyone from encouraging another person to enlist in the military of a foreign country, unless it is done by agents who “enlist… nationals of the countries they represent and not Canadians.”

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

The case was dropped a few months later by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) due to a “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 November 7, he said.

“Basically what we are saying is that the government did something wrong, that they interfered for political purposes,” said Martinez, who also represents the International Center of Justice for Palestinians, a pro-Palestine advocacy group.

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

“The government would not allow that. They will come in immediately.”

“It’s very clear. It’s probably one of the clearest violations of Canadian law in this context that we can think of,” he said.

But the PPSC says there is no evidence Sar-El Canada “recruited or enticed” anyone to join the IDF.

“As part of the application process, the volunteer acknowledges that he does not intend to serve, join or swear allegiance to the IDF,” wrote Marten Dykstra, PPSC’s attorney, in a letter explaining why he withdrew the case.

“Although there is contact between the volunteer and the IDF, there is no evidence of an official relationship.”

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

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

“The security situation may deteriorate without warning,” the GAC warned on its website.

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

“It’s an important job,” he said. “The IDF needs all the help they can get.”