Thirty-two charities in England and Wales have donated at least £28 million to Israeli settlements deemed illegal under international law, according to Labour MP Melanie Ward. She has called on the Charity Commission to investigate the organisations, warning that taxpayers may have subsidised the settlements by £5.6 million through gift aid claims.
Ward, former chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, detailed the charities' activities in a letter to the commission, urging it to remove them from the charity register. She described the donations as extremist and not of benefit to the UK public, adding that they risk being used in breaches of international law.
Among the named charities are the Kasner Charitable Trust (KCT) and UK Toremet, which together donated about £5.7 million to a high school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. UK Toremet also donated to Regavim, an extremist pro-settler group sanctioned by the EU, and processed donations to other pro-settler groups via the Jgive platform.
A UK Toremet spokesperson said the Charity Commission had found it compliant with the law, and that it only processed payments after due diligence. KCT previously stated its donations were for educational purposes and cleared by the commission. The Charity Commission said it is carefully considering the matters raised.
