Charity commission investigating UK charities funding illegal Israeli settlements

The UK Charity Commission has launched a major inquiry into eight British charities that have sent donations to illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank.

The commission will examine whether the charities are using the funds for “legitimate charitable purposes” after receiving “serious allegations” about multiple charities.

The specific charities have not been named. However, this announcement comes after a Declassified UK investigation, which revealed how Israeli group Shivat Zion offered to help British citizens move to “awesome” illegal settlements.

According to Declassified:

Shivat Zion told supporters it could benefit from UK Gift Aid, by directing donations via a separate charity called UK Toremet Ltd, based near London.

In one email, a representative from Shivat Zion said that donations go through a British charity — UK Toremet. They justified this by explaining that it ensures the donations “properly reach Shivat Zion”.

But of course, applying Gift Aid means the British government adds on 25% to charitable donations. Essentially, the British taxpayer is funding illegal Israeli settlements.

Representatives from Shivat Zion were also caught on camera offering to help British citizens move to an illegal settlement in the West Bank. The group’s “encouragement” officer also bragged about “awesome settlements” and told supporters they could benefit from UK tax subsidies.

The original Declassified investigation led to several British MPs calling on the government to sanction Shivat Zion and take action against UK Toremet.

‘Serious allegations’

Since 2016, the Charity Commission has investigated three separate “regulatory compliance cases” about UK Toremet’s work in Palestine.

Additionally, the charity’s trustees were also given statutory guidance and an action plan. This warned it must comply with the Geneva Conventions Act 1957.

Charities have to be able to prove that they are delivering on their charitable aims — no matter what they do and where in the world they operate.

In 2024, a landmark advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) placed countries:

under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Whilst this advisory is not legally binding, it carries significant political weight.

Of course, the UK government refused to comment on Declassified’s findings.

Settler violence

From expelling an entire Palestinian village, to murdering a farmer, harassing Palestinian shepherds, and stopping children from playing football, there is a clear, conscious effort among Israeli settlers to cause physical, emotional, and mental suffering to Palestinians.

Since Israel launched its genocide on Gaza, illegal settlers — with the help of Israeli forces — have murdered more than 1,000 people in the West Bank.

Even the European Union (EU) has agreed to impose sanctions on illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

But we have to remember, occupation and stealing Palestinian land are a core part of Israeli government policy.

In December 2022, in a post on X, Benjamin Netanyahu stated:

These are the basic lines of the national government under my leadership:
The Jewish people has an exclusive and indisputable right to all spaces of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel—in the Galilee, in the Negev, in the Golan, in Judea and Samaria.

There are currently more than 737,000 illegal Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They have the full backing of the state — both ideologically and materially. They are armed by the government and protected by the IOF and the Israeli police.

As the Canary previously reported:

These settlers’ only aim is to force Palestinians off their land, so their colonial settlements can be built there instead, and they do this by storming villages and terrorising residents, burning homes, killing livestock, and destroying crops and trees.

Israeli settlements expansion

Currently, Israel is perpetrating its biggest expansion of Jewish settlements in decades across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Settlements are illegal under international law.

Article 49 of the Geneva Convention states:

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

Additionally, the Hague Regulations (1907) prohibit the seizure and destruction of private property. This means that both the building and the expansion of settlements breach international humanitarian law.

The systematic attempts to expel Palestinians from their native land are colonialism with a ‘do not touch, antisemitic’ label plastered to them.

Even the former head of Mossad has compared settler violence to the Holocaust, saying that: “What I saw today made me feel ashamed to be Jewish” — who are we to argue with such a man?

Now the Charity Commission is finally investigating, but it’s well overdue. Israel is a genocidal, terrorist state — and the settler movement is a prime example of the Zionist supremacist mindset going unchecked by the international community for far too long.

Feature image via TRT World/YouTube

By HG

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