A UK-registered charity has channelled almost £200,000 to a religious school in Hebron that sits at the centre of plans to expand an Israeli settlement considered illegal under international law.
According to records filed with the Charity Commission, Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron transferred nearly £200,000 to the school between 2019 and 2024.
The controversy comes after Israeli authorities approved the construction of a new dormitory for the school in June, following a move by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to grant Israel planning authority in Hebron, breaking a decades-old international arrangement governing the city.
Critics say the expansion will strengthen one of the most hardline settler communities in the occupied West Bank and increase tensions in Hebron, the only Israeli settlement located in the centre of a Palestinian city.
“We want British charities to fund peace, not to fund obstacles for peace. This is very wrong,” said Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights activist and co-founder of Youth Against Settlements.
“The students at this yeshiva are very aggressive. A new building will mean more violence towards Palestinians, more restrictions, more Israeli military presence,” he added.
Hebron remains one of the most heavily militarised areas in the occupied West Bank, with extensive restrictions separating Israeli settlers from the city’s Palestinian population of around 230,000 residents.
Hagit Ofran of the Israeli advocacy organisation Peace Now said the project would further expand what she described as “the most extreme settlement”.
“The new dormitory is a significant development because they are adding more settlers in Hebron, the most extreme settlement, where apartheid is everywhere,” she said.
The charity donated £58,200 to the school in 2023 and received more than £2,000 in Gift Aid, according to its accounts. In 2024, it sent a further £21,360 to the institution.
Questions have also been raised over whether the donations comply with the charity’s own governing documents, which refer to supporting educational work “in the state of Israel” without mentioning Palestinian territories.
Labour MP Melanie Ward identified Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron among 32 charities in England and Wales that she claims have collectively donated at least £28 million to Israeli settlements in recent years.
The Guardian reported that details from Ward’s letter were passed to the Metropolitan Police’s war crimes unit by the Charity Commission, although no investigation has been launched.
Speaking in Parliament on 9 June, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Charity systems are abused to funnel support to illegal settlements” and added that “some evidence suggests that rules are being broken”.
The Charity Commission acknowledged concerns surrounding the issue, describing it as “a complex and contentious issue” involving legal questions over charitable activities in disputed territories.
Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron provides donors with details of a Barclays bank account for contributions. Barclays said it could not comment on individual clients but confirmed it has procedures in place to meet legal and regulatory obligations.
Nadav Weiman, executive director of the Israeli veterans’ group Breaking the Silence, warned that further expansion could intensify violence in the area.
“If communities fund that [new] dormitory, they are funding more violence, funding the next wave that will bring death to Palestinian families and Israeli families,” he said.
“Everything that happens in Hebron first, happens elsewhere afterwards.”