UK charity regulator opens inquiry into funding of illegal Israeli settlements

The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into charities registered in England and Wales over concerns that charitable funds have been directed to illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.

The regulator will examine how much money charities have transferred to organisations or projects operating in the settlements, how recipients used the funds and whether the spending advanced the charities’ declared purposes. It will also consider whether charitable assets or beneficiaries face risks and whether it should take regulatory action.

The inquiry will initially focus on eight unnamed charities selected according to factors including the location of their partners and how recently the alleged activity occurred.

Read: UK Charity Commission urged to act against Zionist trust ‘fundraising’ for IDF

The Commission said it may expand the investigation to include other charities suspected of directly or indirectly supporting activities in illegal settlements. The regulator may identify the organisations when it publishes its findings.

“Serious allegations have been made about UK charities operating in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine” said Stephen Roake, Assistant Director, High Risk Compliance at the Charity Commission. “So, our first step is to establish the facts. Only then can we determine if regulatory action is required, based on our findings and the evidence we see”.

The investigation follows a formal complaint submitted by Labour MP Melanie Ward, who alleged that 32 charities in England and Wales had donated at least £28 million ($37.7) to illegal Israeli settlements. Ward also raised concerns that British taxpayers may have subsidised some of the transfers through the Gift Aid tax relief scheme.

Previous investigations revealed that two British charities transferred approximately £5.7 million ($7.7 million) to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. The funding reportedly helped expand the school, which forms a significant part of the settlement’s infrastructure.

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More recently, Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent nearly £200,000 ($269,400) between 2019 and 2024 to a religious school at the centre of plans to expand the illegal Israeli settlement in Hebron. The project includes a new dormitory approved after far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich seized planning authority over the area.

In June, then foreign secretary Yvette Cooper told parliament that “charity systems are abused to funnel support to illegal settlements” and warned that available evidence suggested some organisations were breaking the rules.

Read: Revealed – the UK charity facilitating donations to Israeli settlements

Ward and 140 Labour colleagues called for an outright ban on charitable funding for settlements rather than an inquiry alone. They also questioned why the Commission had not acted sooner after concerns were raised in 2025.

The Commission has shared information about the scope of its investigation with the police and HM Revenue and Customs. The Metropolitan Police’s war crimes unit said it was not currently investigating charities over donations to illegal settlements.

Labour MP and Foreign Affairs Committee member Abtisam Mohamed welcomed the investigation but urged the regulator to examine all 32 charities identified in the complaint.

“Funding illegal Israeli settlements is extremist activity linked to the violence and dispossession of Palestinians,” Mohamed warned, insisting that such support had no legitimate charitable purpose