Campaign Against Antisemitism wrist slapped for ‘mismanagement’

The Charity Commission has found what it described as “mismanagement” by the misnamed ‘Campaign Against Antisemitism’ (CAA) for political activities at odds with its status as a ‘charity’. The CAA claims to combat antisemitism, but is in fact an Israel-funded lobby group that specialises in “defaming Palestine solidarity campaigners.”

CAA has been under scrutiny since September 2024, when it attacked as “obscene” the Starmer government for daring to make even a phantom reduction in arms licences to Israel. A further complaint was lodged with the Commission by human rights group CAGE in 2025. CAGE describes CAA, along with its fellow lobby group ‘UK Lawyers for Israel,’ as “Britain’s apartheid lobby” for their vexatious attacks on support for the Palestinian people against occupation, oppression and genocide.

However, the Commission’s announcement falls far short of the appropriate step of stripping a political lobbying group of its charitable status. This is hardly surprising: the Commission has been investigating CAA since at least 2018 without effective action.

Campaign Against Antisemitism guilty of mismanagement

The Charity Commission criticised CAA’s ‘failure’ to retain records relating to its 2024 political attack as “mismanagement”, said it had doubts that CAA’s statement “furthered the charity’s [supposed] objectives” and said it had issued the CAA with a “remedial Action Plan”. This treats CAA as if its conduct were merely shoddy and in need of improvement, rather than in line with its real, Israel-supporting goals — even though the Commission admitted it had received other complaints about its behaviour.

The Commission views failing to retain records relating to this decision making as mismanagement in the administration of this charity.

Further complaints have also been raised about CAA’s attack on the UK’s judicial system because a jury had dared to declare the Starmer regime’s ‘terror’ ban on anti-genocide group Palestine Action unlawful. CAA has boasted of its role in securing the ban.

CAA boss Gideon Falter is one of the central figures in the Israel lobby’s attacks on the Labour left during the Corbyn era. In 2024, as hundreds of thousands protested peacefully against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, he tried to claim that police had prevented him from ‘crossing a road’ because of the threat posed by a ‘hateful’ anti-genocide march. In fact, he had turned up with a security detail — not to ‘cross’ the road but to try to barge through the demo in the opposite direction.

Jewish anti-genocide group JVL lodged a 2020 complaint that CAA is a “highly politically partisan organisation which does not deserve charitable status”. JVL welcomed the Commission’s action against CAA as “not before time”. However, in reality it amounts to nothing more than a light slap on the wrist for one of the Israel lobby’s worst offenders. It evidences once again how spineless UK institutions are against the genocide lobby.

Featured image via the Canary