Labour MP Melanie Ward has revealed that at least 32 registered UK charity organizations donated £28 million to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank over the past five years. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has since ordered the Charity Commission to investigate, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer said no UK charity should be supporting settlements.
How the UK charity funding trail was uncovered
Ward, a former chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, worked with Israeli human rights researchers to trace the donations. Her findings show that gift aid may have been claimed against the contributions, meaning British taxpayers could have subsidized illegal settlements by nearly £5.6 million through the standard charity tax relief scheme.
“From our perspective, any financial support directed toward Israeli settlements in Palestine shouldn’t be viewed as a neutral charitable activity,” said Ameer Dawood of the Documentation and Publication and Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission.
Ward raised the findings at Prime Minister’s Questions, telling Starmer that many of the charities named appeared to have been set up specifically to send money to settlements, with some even referencing settlements in their registered names.
🔴 UK charity sent £200k to school in illegal Israeli settlement
Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron donated nearly £200,000 to a religious school in Hebron between 2019 and 2024, funding expansion approved after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich unilaterally broke decades-old… pic.twitter.com/Zy4TkaJed1
— NewsTongue (@NewsTongueX) July 6, 2026
The Kasner Charitable Trust was identified as having donated approximately £5.7 million to a yeshiva school in the Susya settlement and a further £40,000 to Yeshivat Shavei Hevron High School in Hebron. Donors concerned about where their money ends up can use independent tools to verify a charity’s registration and financial transparency before giving.
UK regulators face pressure to act
Starmer told parliament that settlements represent a flagrant breach of international law and that British businesses should have no economic involvement in them. Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer met the Charity Commission on the same day to discuss the matter, and further sanctions were announced against those who support settler violence.
“Does the Prime Minister agree that funnelling money to Israeli settlements is extremist activity, not charitable activity, and will he be clear that it is banned?” Ward asked during the exchange.
Starmer confirmed that no UK charity should be supporting illegal settlements. Ward had previously filed a formal complaint with the Charity Commission on June 1, arguing that organizations were misrepresenting their work as being based in Israel rather than in occupied Palestinian territory. The case surfaces amid wider questions about staff accountability and oversight at organizations operating in the Gaza crisis. The Charity Commission said it is carefully considering the serious matters raised.