Charities in England and Wales accused of sending millions to Israeli settlements

A Guardian report says 32 charities in England and Wales donated at least £28 million to Israeli settlements, triggering fresh calls for the Charity Commission to investigate the flow of money and consider whether charities should remain on the register.

Labour MP Melanie Ward said the donations could also have attracted about £5.6 million in Gift Aid if claimed in the usual way. In a letter to the regulator, she urged the commission to investigate the charities and remove them from the charity register.

The report lands in the middle of a wider political and legal dispute over the status of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Guardian describes the settlements as illegal under international law, and the issue raises questions about how UK charity law, international law and tax relief rules intersect.

What the report says

The new report identifies a broader group of 32 charities in England and Wales as having sent money to Israeli settlements. It says the combined total reaches at least £28 million.

That is the central allegation now facing the charities and the regulator. The report does not yet publish the full list of the 32, and it says further reporting may be needed to show how the total was compiled.

The reporting also says the donations may have qualified for Gift Aid, which would raise the public-cost and oversight questions further if the claims were made in the usual way.

Earlier Guardian reporting

The latest piece builds on an earlier Guardian report from July 2025 that focused on two charities: the Kasner Charitable Trust and UK Toremet.

That report said the two charities had together donated about £5.7 million to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, in the occupied West Bank. It also said UK Toremet donated £38,479 to Regavim in 2022.

Those details matter because the latest reporting uses them as part of the wider picture it is drawing about charity money reaching settlements and settlement-linked groups.

Regulator and government response

A Charity Commission spokesperson said the regulator was carefully considering the issues raised and was actively considering the wider legal and compliance issues relating to charities operating in Palestine.

Separately, the Guardian reported that foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said on June 9, 2026 that the Charity Commission had been tasked with investigating UK charities' links to settlements.

The reporting does not yet make clear whether that amounts to a formal inquiry or a broader review of the issue. That distinction remains one of the key unanswered questions.

Why it is controversial

The allegations go beyond ordinary charity oversight. They touch on whether UK-registered charities can fund activity connected to settlements that are widely contested under international law.

They also raise the possibility of taxpayer subsidy through Gift Aid if donations to those charities qualified for relief. That has made the issue politically sensitive as well as legally fraught.

The stakes are high for the named charities too. If the commission concludes that any have breached charity rules, it could lead to scrutiny, compliance action or, in the most serious cases, removal from the register.

What happens next

The most immediate questions are whether the Charity Commission opens or confirms a formal investigation, and whether it sets out what standards it is applying to charities operating in Palestine.

It is also unclear which organisations make up the full list of 32, how the £28 million total was calculated, and whether all of the donations were structured in a way that qualifies for Gift Aid.

The named charities have not all given full responses in the reporting cited so far. The next round of reporting is likely to focus on direct rebuttals, the complete donor list and any formal action by the regulator.