UK Charity Supports School in Hebron Amid Settlement Expansion
Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron, a British charity, has provided nearly £200,000 in funding to a religious school located in Hebron between 2019 and 2024, according to publicly available accounts from the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The school is situated at the core of expansion plans for an Israeli settlement considered illegal under international law.
In June, approval was granted for the construction of a new dormitory for the school following a unilateral decision by Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister, who altered a decades-old international agreement governing control of Hebron to grant Israeli planning authority.
This expansion will increase the settler population in Hebron, the only settlement established within the center of a Palestinian city.
Concerns Over Impact on Peace and Palestinian Community
“We want British charities to fund peace, not to fund obstacles for peace. This is very wrong,”said Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights defender from Hebron 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.”
Israel has implemented extensive militarized separation measures in Hebron to isolate several hundred settlers from the Palestinian population. Certain streets are entirely off-limits to Palestinians, and walls and gates separate Palestinians living under Israeli military control from the majority of the city's 230,000 residents.
“For this yeshiva to exist, thousands of Palestinians have already lost their shops, their housing and their daily livelihood in the heart of a Palestinian city,”said Hagit Ofran of the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now.
“The new dormitory is a significant development because they are adding more settlers in Hebron, the most extreme settlement, where apartheid is everywhere.”
Allegations of Apartheid and International Criticism
International and Israeli figures, including the late US President Jimmy Carter, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, and former Israeli Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair, have stated that Israel has imposed apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Hebron.
Hebron Yeshiva actively seeks donations from countries where settlements are considered illegal, offering receipts for contributions in France and Canada. Additionally, an Israeli crowdfunding platform, Israelgives, has facilitated fundraising efforts.
The exterior of the new dormitory is completed, and the Israeli military has established an outpost on the roof of an adjacent Palestinian home. In 2023, Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron donated £58,200 to the school and claimed over £2,000 in gift aid from HMRC, despite stating on its website that it is not registered for gift aid. In 2024, with reduced turnover and no full accounts filed, the charity sent £21,360 to the school.
Legal and Regulatory Concerns
Donations from Friends of Yeshivat appear to conflict with the charity’s deed of trust, which specifies educational and charitable work "in the state of Israel" without mention of the occupied Palestinian territories.
While Israel has not formally defined its borders, the British government recognized the state of Palestine last year, encompassing Hebron.
The charity is among 32 registered in England and Wales identified in a letter sent to the Charity Commission by Labour MP Melanie Ward on 1 June. The letter stated these charities have collectively donated at least £28 million to Israeli settlements in recent years.
understands the Charity Commission forwarded details of the letter to the Metropolitan Police’s war crimes unit; however, no investigation is currently underway.
Government and Charity Commission Responses
On 9 June, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper stated in parliament that "charity systems are abused to funnel support to illegal settlements" and that "some evidence suggests that rules are being broken." She noted the Charity Commission has been tasked with investigating links to settlements.
The Charity Commission expressed shared concerns but described the issue as complex and contentious, involving broader legal principles about charities’ rights to operate and support vulnerable populations in conflict zones or areas with contested jurisdiction.
Charity Operations and Contact Details
Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron provides a UK bank account with Barclays Bank for donor transfers. A Barclays spokesperson declined to comment on individual clients but confirmed the bank maintains policies and procedures to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including due diligence and financial crime controls for charity clients.
The charity’s contact email is linked to Ari Bloom, a trustee and partner at the law firm Solomon Taylor & Shaw. The law firm’s switchboard number and north London address are listed as the charity’s phone contact and registered address, respectively. These contact details were updated on the Charity Commission website following inquiries from .
Attempts to obtain comment from Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron were made.
Security Situation and Community Impact
The existing yeshiva building and its expansion are located at the edge of the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron. Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking the Silence, an organization founded by Israeli combat veterans to document military abuses in occupied Palestine, reported that students at the school throw stones at Palestinians from the roof. Israeli soldiers, who outnumber the settlers, have converted rooftops of private Palestinian homes into military posts to secure the yeshiva complex.
“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,”Weiman said.
“Everything that happens in Hebron first, happens elsewhere afterwards.”
Calls for Legal Measures Against Settlement Involvement
Labour peer Helena Kennedy has called for a ban on British citizens purchasing property in Israeli settlements located in the occupied West Bank.
Speaking in the House of Lords, Kennedy stated that buying or investing in settlement land would render British citizens "complicit" in violations of international law.
“We cannot have British citizens being complicit in violations of international law,”she said, adding that ongoing settlement expansion is making it "impossible for the Palestinians ever to have a state of their own."
Kennedy, who directs the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, urged government ministers to "match words with actions" by preventing British involvement in settlement property.
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