The United Kingdom’s independent charity oversight body has launched a formal investigation into multiple domestic charities accused of directing financial support to illegal Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory, a significant escalation of the regulator’s ongoing scrutiny of UK charitable activity tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Charity Commission for England and Wales confirmed that the inquiry will examine three core areas: how donations transferred to the settlements were ultimately used, the stated and unstated purpose of the funds, and whether the activity aligns with legally defined charitable objectives under UK law. Stephen Roake, the commission’s assistant director for high-risk compliance, confirmed the probe targets eight unnamed UK charities in a public statement announcing the opening of the investigation.
“Serious allegations have been raised regarding UK charities operating in connection with illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. Our immediate priority is to gather and verify all relevant facts to understand what has occurred,” Roake stated. “Once this fact-finding process is complete, we will assess whether regulatory intervention is necessary based on the evidence we uncover. This work will also inform future regulatory guidance for UK charities operating in the region, which is critical to upholding public trust in the charitable sector as a whole.”
The investigation follows a series of recent developments that have pushed the issue into UK regulatory focus. Last month, independent regional outlet Middle East Eye exposed details of an event hosted by a London synagogue that openly marketed property in illegal Israeli settlements located in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. Brochures and promotional materials from the event, obtained exclusively by Middle East Eye, confirmed the event’s focus on advertising settlement properties. Following this expose, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians—a UK-based legal advocacy organization focused on Palestinian rights—submitted a formal complaint to the Charity Commission urging an official inquiry.
This new probe is the latest in a string of regulatory actions tied to the Israel-Gaza war from the Charity Commission. Late last year, the regulator explicitly ruled it unlawful for UK charities to raise or transfer funds to active Israeli soldiers. Since the outbreak of the 2023 Gaza war in October, the commission has opened more than 200 separate regulatory cases linked to the conflict, covering charities across the full spectrum of positions on the war, from pro-Israel to pro-Palestinian groups.
Over the course of the conflict, multiple leading international human rights bodies, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have formally accused Israeli forces of committing war crimes and acts of genocide in their military campaign in Gaza. The regulator has already been conducting active probes into other UK charities tied to Israeli military activity: earlier in 2024, it confirmed it was assessing a complaint against AAC, a Jewish fundraising organization accused of facilitating donations to an Israeli charity that supplies military equipment to soldiers deployed in Gaza. It is also investigating the Hendon-based Boys Clubhouse, a UK charity, after the group hosted a welcome event for a British national who returned to the UK after fighting with the Israeli army in Gaza.