UK charities fund East Jerusalem yeshiva expansion amid settlement controversy

Tax records show that Achisomoch Aid Company and British Friends of Yehuda Yaale have together given roughly $1.3 million to the Ohr Somayach yeshiva, which operates a campus in East Jerusalem’s Maalot Dafna settlement. On 20 April 2026 the Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved the yeshiva’s plan for an 11-storey building, including classrooms, dormitories and an underground basketball court, on a car-park site in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

UK Toremet, another British-registered charity, also facilitates donations to the institution and is being examined by the Charity Commission for possible breaches of the Geneva Conventions Act. Representatives of the donating charities say the funds support day-to-day educational expenses and claim uncertainty about the legal status of the land. The UK government has recently announced measures to ban imports and promotion of goods from illegal Israeli settlements, signalling heightened scrutiny of such charitable contributions.