4 hours ago
2
Two UK charities have transferred millions of pounds to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank with the endorsement of the charities regulator, the Guardian can reveal.
Documents show that the Kasner Charitable Trust (KCT), via a conduit charity, UK Toremet, has donated approximately £5.7m to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, in the Israeli-occupied territory.
As the budget of the school increased significantly as a result of the donations, the number of pupils, employees at the school and Susya residents have all increased.
Dror Etkes, an expert on Israeli settlement, said: “The school is likely the largest single source of employment in the settlement, and constitutes one of the main elements of the entire settlement’s existence.”
Susya was established in or around 1983, south of Hebron, adjacent to and impinging on the pre-existing Palestinian village of Khirbet Susiya (commonly known as just Susiya). In 1986, the Israeli authorities declared the main residential area of Susiya an archaeological site and evicted all of its residents, according to Amnesty International.
In March, settlers launched an attack on the Susiya home of Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.
In 2016 the Charity Commission wrote to UK Toremet saying: “A donation to a school in the occupied territories would be a donation for the advancement of education and therefore on the face of it a legitimate grant for UK Toremet to make.”
The former Conservative party chair Sayeeda Warsi said: “It’s appalling that any British national should be engaged in funding illegal settlements on occupied land – and it’s even more disturbing that this is being subsidised by all of us taxpayers.
“I’m sure the vast majority of my colleagues in Westminster will share my outrage that the Charity Commission is greenlighting these donations. Serious action must be taken so that settlements which are illegal under international law, and at the heart of a regime of discrimination and displacement, cannot benefit from charitable donations.”
Andy McDonald, a Labour MP and a solicitor, said: “The government must urgently take the steps necessary to ban the use of funds originating from the UK being used to support any aspect of the illegal occupation and ensure the Charity Commission is in no doubt about its duty in preventing such transfers and having the powers to do so.
“Donations to illegal settlements should invalidate charitable status and result in individual prosecutions. If legislation is needed, we must do it.”
Concerns have previously been raised about charitable donations from the UK to Israeli settlements but this is believed to be the first time there has been a definitive paper trail of a major transfer of funds to an illegal settlement.
In a written answer in parliament in 2015, the government said the Charity Commission, which covers England and Wales, had written to UK Toremet’s trustees “and will be meeting them to review … [its] governance, policies, procedures and operational activity”.
The following year the commission confirmed it had an “open case” and that UK Toremet had been issued with “an action plan” and its compliance was being monitored.
The £5.7m of donations were made subsequently, between 2017 and 2021. When the law firm Hickman & Rose contacted the commission about them in 2022 it replied that the issues raised were not within its regulatory role as they involved allegations of war crimes and advised the solicitors to report the matter to the police.
The lawyers accordingly approached the counter-terrorism command, SO15, about individuals within the two charities. SO15 responded in March this year that it would not be pursuing a criminal investigation, based on reasons that the lawyers plan to contest, but said it would be highlighting the UK position on illegal settlements to the commission “with our concerns”.
A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “We know this is a highly contentious issue about which there are strongly held opposing views. The commission can only operate within our legal framework, and the fact that a charity operates in the occupied Palestinian territories does not in itself constitute a criminal offence or breach of charity law.”
It said it referred all potential criminal matters to the relevant law enforcement body, adding: “Given the complex legal issues in relation to international law we are in the process of seeking renewed specialist advice from the attorney general.”
A UK Toremet spokesperson said it was “not driven by any political or ideological agenda: and grants were made within the scope of English charity law”, highlighting the 2016 letter from the commission about educational donations.
A KCT spokesperson questioned whether the settlement was illegal. Before ending the call, he said the donation was for a “religious school, not for settlement purposes”, denied KCT was in any way encouraging the settlement and said the commission had “cleared” the donations.
