Charities in England and Wales ‘donate millions to illegal Israeli settlements’

Thirty-two charities in England and Wales have donated at least £28m to Israeli settlements that are illegal under international law, an MP has said.Labour’s Melanie Ward said that if gift aid were claimed against the donations in the usual way, it would mean taxpayers had subsidised illegal settlements to the tune of £5.6m, a situation she described as deplorable. The foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced on Tuesday that the Charity Commission has been tasked with investigating UK charities’ links to settlements.Ward, formerly the chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, set out the details of their recent activities in a letter to the commission in which she urges the regulator to take action by investigating them and removing them from the charity register.She writes: “The existence and growth of Israeli settlements in the state of Palestine is globally recognised as one of the major impediments to peace. Any activity which supports the maintenance and the expansion of Israeli settlements – such as that funded by these 32 ‘charities’ – is extremist and not of benefit to the UK public. Further, it risks being materially and financially used in pursuance of breaches of international law.”Among the charities she names are the Kasner Charitable Trust (KCT) and UK Toremet, which the Guardian revealed last year had together – the latter acting as a conduit – donated about £5.7m to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Ward said researchers, who examined documents in English and Hebrew, found Kasner had also donated to a yeshiva in the Palestinian city of Hebron while, in 2022, UK Toremet donated £38,479 to Regavim, an extremist pro-settler group that supports the destruction of Palestinian homes and which the EU has imposed sanctions on.A member of Regavim with a map of the West Bank in the recently deserted village of Zanuta, where the population say they were forced out by settler harassment. Photograph: Jason Burke/The ObserverThrough the Jgive platform, for which UK Toremet processes UK currency donations, people can donate to Regavim and other pro-settler groups including Shivat Zion Lerigvy Admata, which the UK announced on Tuesday that it would be imposing sanctions on.A UK Toremet spokesperson said the Charity Commission had found it to be compliant with the law and that it only processed Jgive payments after due diligence and if they were for a project compliant with charitable purposes.The spokesperson said that Shivat Zion Lerigvy Admata was not an approved recipient under UK Toremet’s grant-making framework, the donation to Regavim was for a project within Israel’s pre-1967 borders and it is no longer an approved recipient either.When approached previously, KCT said its donations were for educational purposes and had been cleared by the commission.Ward said the provision of funds to support illegal settlements in Palestine was not a charitable activity and did not comply with UK or international law on settlement activity, a position “taken by the United Nations, successive UK governments, the international court of justice, and an issue that is subject to an international criminal court investigation on the grounds of war crimes”.Yaser Alkam, a Palestinian-American who lives in the occupied West Bank village of Turmus Ayya, and who was attacked by settlers last year while trying to harvest his olives, said: “Donating to these outposts and to these settlements is directly affecting Palestinians, the owners of the land in these areas.“You’re providing the means for these crimes to continue and to flourish.”A Charity Commission spokesperson said it was carefully considering the “serious matters” Ward had raised.“As we have previously confirmed, we are actively considering the wider legal and compliance issues relating to charities operating in Palestine,” the spokesperson said. “We know this is a complex and highly contentious issue and so it is right that we take the time needed to consider these matters fully.”