Millions sent by UK charities to Israeli West Bank settlement

Two UK charities have transferred millions of pounds to an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank with the endorsement of the charities regulator, the Guardian can reveal.

- Haroon Siddique

Documents show that the Kasner Charitable Trust (KCT), via a conduit charity, UK Toremet, has donated approximately £5.7m to the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva high school in Susya, in the Israeli-occupied territory.

As the budget of the school increased significantly as a result of the donations, the number of pupils, employees at the school and Susya residents have all increased. Dror Etkes, an expert on Israeli settlement, said: "The school is likely the largest single source of employment in the settlement, and constitutes one of the main elements of the entire settlement's existence."

Susya was established around 1983 south of Hebron next to and impinging on the pre-existing Palestinian village of Khirbet Susiya (known as just Susiya). In 1986, the Israeli authorities declared the main residential area of Susiya an archaeological site and evicted its Palestinian residents, according to Amnesty International.

In March, Israeli settlers launched an attack on the Susiya home of Hamdan Ballal, one of the directors of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

In 2016 the Charity Commission wrote to UK Toremet saying: "A donation to a school in the occupied territories would be a donation for the advancement of education and therefore on the face of it a legitimate grant for UK Toremet to make."