A London-based legal advocacy organization focused on Palestinian rights has formally called on Britain’s Charity Commission to launch a formal investigation into a UK-registered charity over its documented support for an illegal Israeli settlement built on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) confirmed it has submitted an official grievance against the Gainsborough Trust, highlighting that the charity’s publicly stated core objectives include collecting and dispersing funds to support residents of Modiin Illit — a large Israeli settlement established in the occupied West Bank that the UK government now formally recognizes as illegal under international law.
Citing a recent public statement from UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband that explicitly reaffirms the UK’s position that Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories is unlawful, the ICJP is pushing the Charity Commission to not only open a probe but also issue a formal ruling on whether a UK-registered charity can legally designate residents of an illegal settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) as official charitable beneficiaries.
The legal group added that the regulator must also examine whether the Gainsborough Trust’s board of trustees has properly fulfilled its fiduciary and legal obligations in managing the charity’s operations, fundraising, and distribution of grants. Under existing UK charity legislation, all funds raised by registered entities must be exclusively allocated to recognized charitable causes that deliver public benefit, with no provisions for supporting activities deemed illegal under international law.
The call for investigation follows a bombshell investigation published this week by Declassified UK, which uncovered that the Gainsborough Trust is one of six UK-based charities that have collectively channeled nearly £2 million to illegal Israeli settlements over the past three years. Declassified’s analysis of charity financial records shows the Gainsborough Trust reported total income of more than £448,000 between 2021 and 2024.
While the exact sum transferred directly to projects in Modiin Illit remains unconfirmed, as the Gainsborough Trust’s annual financial filings do not name specific grant recipients, the documents show roughly £120,000 was disbursed to institutions categorized as higher education, £70,000 to groups labeled as providing basic education in Jewish principles, £2,595 to a religious center for prayer and learning, and additional grants to initiatives supporting “destitute families” and “poor brides.”
This latest complaint comes months after the Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry into eight other UK charities, following allegations from Labour MP Melanie Ward that 32 UK-registered charities have funneled a total of £28 million to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The ICJP emphasized that the UK’s recent updated policy announcement on Israeli settlements aligns the country with the landmark 2024 advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which formally concluded that Israel’s continued presence and settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories violates international law.
Orlaith Roe, public affairs and communications officer for the ICJP, said the UK government’s formal recognition of the occupation’s illegal status makes targeted regulatory scrutiny of UK charities far more urgent. “Having recognised that Israel’s occupation is unlawful and announced measures to ban economic activity connected to illegal settlements, there can be no inconsistency when it comes to the charitable sector,” Roe explained. “The Charity Commission must ensure that UK charities are not being used as a vehicle to support activities that are unlawful, political or otherwise outside their exclusively charitable purposes.”