UK Charities Sent $1.3M to East Jerusalem Yeshiva Now Approved to Expand Into Sheikh Jarrah

On 20 April 2026, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved an 11-storey building for Ohr Somayach in Sheikh Jarrah, ending more than 12 years of delay. Eight floors will rise above a carpark opposite a mosque; three more will sit below ground, including a basketball court. The site was originally designated for local public services.

Ohr Somayach is an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva network that recruits young men, largely from the United States and other Western countries, and already runs a campus in Maalot Dafna, an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem built on land the UN once oversaw and international law still classifies as occupied territory seized in 1967. Sheikh Jarrah, where the new building will stand, has for decades been a target of Israeli state-backed settler expansion.

Middle East Eye reports that since Ohr Somayach filed for planning approval in 2013, it has drawn money from two charities registered in Britain. Israeli Corporations Authority tax records show the London-based Achisomoch Aid Company donated 2.13 million shekels, about $704,000, to the yeshiva. A second UK-registered charity, British Friends of Yehuda Yaale, donated 1.8 million shekels, roughly $597,000. Combined, the two charities sent $1.3 million to Ohr Somayach over 12 years, spanning the entire life of the Sheikh Jarrah planning fight.

Achisomoch describes its purpose as advancing religion "in accordance with the Orthodox Jewish Faith," a designation that lets it claim UK gift aid, a 25 percent top-up from the British government on donations. MEE reports that emails show Achisomoch advising potential donors on how to claim it.

A third charity, UK Toremet, facilitates donations to Ohr Somayach and took part in an international fundraiser that has brought in more than $2 million for the yeshiva, promising donors tax receipts in their own currency. UK Toremet is already under review by Britain's Charity Commission, which MEE reports has issued the charity's trustees with statutory guidance and an action plan requiring compliance with the Geneva Conventions Act 1957. The charity has reportedly also funded West Bank settlements and Regavim, an organization sanctioned by the EU and Canada. In Al Jazeera's documentary Complicit, Regavim's international director Naomi Linder Kahn was secretly filmed describing the funding channel:

"We work through UK Toremet."

The promotional video attached to this reporting is Ohr Somayach's own recruitment music video, in which a young American man named Jake loses a business deal after an investor spots his Star of David necklace, then finds purpose after enrolling at the yeshiva. The video closes with the line: "Thousands of Jewish students are seeing the light. Will you?" It does not mention Sheikh Jarrah, the planning dispute, or the underlying land status.

Achisomoch, UK Toremet and Ohr Somayach did not respond to MEE's requests for comment.