Six UK Charities Sent Over £1.7 Million to Israeli Settlements, Filings Show

Public filings with the UK Charity Commission show six registered British charities openly fundraising for activities and infrastructure inside illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an investigation by Declassified UK.

Two of the charities state explicitly in their filings that they support specific settlements. Others carry the names of settlements directly. Taken together, the six appear to have sent more than £1.7 million to recipients in settlements over the past three years, based on the filings, though the true figure could be higher since annual reports frequently do not name recipients or break out settlement-specific spending.

One of the charities identified, the Gainsborough Trust, states its charitable objective includes support for "inhabitants of Modiin Illit, Israel and the surrounding areas." Modiin Illit is the largest Israeli settlement in the West Bank by population and, according to the reporting, one of the poorest. Between 2021 and 2025 the trust registered income of more than £448,000, with roughly £120,000 allocated to "higher education" institutions, £70,000 to "basic education of Jewish principles," £226,000 to "destitute families," and £29,000 to "poor brides." A second charity, British Friends of Ezrat Yisrael Kiryat Sefer, takes its name from Kiryat Sefer, another name for Modiin Illit.

Most of the six identified charities direct their claimed activity toward Modiin Illit specifically, according to the filings reviewed.

"The government and regulators have been far too slow to confront the systematic issue of UK charitable funds supporting settlements," said Shaima Dallali, a legal researcher at the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians.

The ICJP has filed a formal complaint with the Charity Commission and the Metropolitan Police over one of the charities Declassified flagged, and is reviewing the others.

The findings arrive months after Labour MP Melanie Ward accused 32 British charities in June of funnelling £28 million to illegal Israeli settlements. Ward did not respond to requests for comment on the new findings. The Charity Commission separately announced last month that it had opened a statutory inquiry into eight charities working in illegal settlements, but declined to confirm which organisations are under investigation, leaving it unclear whether any of the six identified by Declassified are among them.

Declassified also found that many of the email addresses and phone numbers listed in the six charities' official filings either did not work or had been disconnected, raising questions about how the Commission has maintained oversight contact with them. None of the six charities responded to requests for comment.

The reporting lands days after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced that the British government now considers Israel's entire occupation of the Palestinian territories unlawful, aligning the UK with the International Court of Justice's 2024 advisory opinion, which held that states are obliged "not to render aid or assistance" to the occupation. Miliband's speech did not address charity funding of settlements, though he has since pledged to examine concerns, raised by Declassified and others, that British taxpayers are effectively subsidizing settlement expansion through Gift Aid claimed by these organisations.

Under UK law, registered charities must show their funds serve a charitable purpose and public benefit. Dallali argued that standard is incompatible with funding settlements. "The UK cannot simply acknowledge that settlements are illegal while turning a blind eye to financial flows originating within its own jurisdiction that may contribute to sustaining them," she said.