UK Charity Regulator Opens Inquiry Into Eight Groups Over Israeli Settlement Funding

Britain's charity regulator has opened a formal inquiry into eight organisations over concerns that donations, potentially subsidised by UK taxpayers, have ended up funding illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The Charity Commission confirmed the inquiry in a statement but declined to name the charities involved, describing them only as groups "identified in concerns recently raised with the Commission." The regulator stressed that opening an inquiry is "not a finding of wrongdoing" but said it had received "serious allegations" warranting scrutiny.

The move follows an earlier investigation by Declassified UK, which found that an Israeli organisation called Shivat Zion had been offering to help British citizens relocate to what it called "awesome" settlements in the West Bank, territory considered illegally occupied under international law.

The Gift Aid connection

According to an email seen by Declassified UK, a Shivat Zion representative told a supporter that donations could be routed through UK Toremet Ltd, a charity based near London, to "ensure the donations properly reach Shivat Zion." Structuring donations this way would allow them to qualify for UK Gift Aid, the scheme under which the British government adds 25 percent to charitable contributions from taxpayers.

In effect, the arrangement described in Declassified's reporting suggests that UK public money, via a tax subsidy, may have helped fund settlement activity that successive UK governments have publicly opposed as a breach of international law.

UK Toremet is not new to regulatory attention. The Charity Commission has run three separate "regulatory compliance cases" concerning the charity's work in Palestine since 2016. Its trustees have previously been issued statutory guidance and an action plan requiring compliance with the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, the UK law incorporating obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into occupied territory.

A UK Toremet spokesperson told Declassified that all grants are made "within the scope of English charity law" and in line with the charity's own grantmaking policies, trustee discretion, and Charity Commission guidance.

Political pressure

Labour MP Grahame Morris said he was "appalled" that UK taxpayers may have been funding an organisation helping people move to illegal settlements, and called on the government to investigate and shut down groups facilitating breaches of international law.

Stephen Roake, the Commission's assistant director, said all charities must demonstrate they are delivering on their charitable purposes "wherever in the world they operate," adding that the first step was to "establish the facts" before determining whether regulatory action is warranted. He said the fact-finding exercise would also help shape future Commission guidance for charities operating in this area.

The inquiry remains open, and the Commission has not disclosed which eight charities are under review or a timeline for its findings. But the case adds to a growing pattern in which UK charitable and tax infrastructure, designed for public benefit, appears to have been used as a channel for supporting settlement expansion that the UK government itself classifies as illegal.