The UK’s Charity Commission has launched an investigation into eight organisations over allegations that they sent money to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In the first formal inquiry into the use of charitable funds sent to settlements in the occupied West Bank, the regulator said it will examine the apparent British financing of areas that are illegal under international law.
The investigation follows a formal complaint submitted by Labour MP and Scotland Minister Melanie Ward, who alleged that 32 charities in England and Wales had channelled at least £28 million to Israeli settlements.
The Charity Commission said its inquiry would initially focus on the eight unnamed charities but was expected to widen over time.
When she was a back bench MP in June, Ms Ward urged a crackdown on charities supporting settlements, arguing that such activity did not qualify for charitable status.
“Funding illegal Israeli settlements is not charitable activity. It is extremist activity,” she wrote on Instagram after submitting a formal complaint.
She also argued that illegal expansion was undermining any prospects for peace. “Settlements and violent settlers devastate the chance of peace and a two-state solution to this long-running conflict. This is their purpose.”
The Commission stressed that the inquiry was not a finding of wrongdoing and stated that the eight charities had been selected in part on how recently the alleged activities had taken place.
“Serious allegations have been made about UK charities operating in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine, so our first step is to establish the facts,” said Stephen Roake, the commission's assistant director for high risk compliance. “Only then can we determine if regulatory action is required, based on our findings and the evidence we see.”
Investigators will examine the purpose of spending in the settlements and whether charitable funds were used beyond organisations’ stated objectives. Information from the inquiry will be shared with the police and a report will be published that could name the charities involved.
The inquiry follows growing political pressure on the regulator after then-foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, told parliament last month that she had asked the Commission to investigate evidence that “charity systems are abused to funnel support to illegal settlements” and that “some evidence suggests that rules are being broken”.
Ms Ward has also called for an outright ban on charitable donations to settlements and has criticised the Commission for failing to act sooner despite concerns emerging publicly last year.
“The government was clear that this should not be happening,” she messaged on Instagram this week. “The Commission told me new guidance will be put in place to stop it.”
The issue has attracted increasing scrutiny following a series of investigations into UK charities operating in the occupied territories. Last year it emerged that two British charities transferred around £5.7 million to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.
More recently, The Guardian reported that Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron, a British charity, had sent almost £200,000 between 2019 and 2024 to a religious school in Hebron that sits at the centre of plans to expand the settlement. Construction of a new dormitory was approved in June after far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich granted planning permission. The charity did not respond to The National’s request for comment.
The investigation was welcomed by Labour MP John Slinger, who has worked extensively in the Middle East. “It's unacceptable for British organisations to do business with Israeli settlers who are undermining the prospect of a two-state solution,” he told The National.
“British companies and organisations must not do any business whatsoever with Israeli settlers who wish to make a Palestinian state unviable.”
It is also understood the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham will look to impose trade sanctions on any goods coming from the occupied West Bank.
