London charity given official warning over campaign to support Israeli army soldier

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A London charity has been given an official warning after it raised thousands of pounds to send to an Israeli army soldier stationed in northern Israel.

The Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex Limited set up a fund-raising page for the soldier in October 2023 when the war in Gaza began between Israel and Hamas.

The page, which was eventually removed in January last year, raised about £2,280. Of that, £937 was sent directly to an individual soldier.

However, the trustees are unable to account for how those funds were spent and the remaining donations were used by the trustees to purchase non-lethal military equipment and were sent to the same soldier in Israel.

The Charity Commission, the regulator of charities in England and Wales, has now issued the group with an official warning after finding the trustees had acted outside the charity’s purposes and failed to safeguard its best interests and its reputation.

The charity’s listed purposes are to advance the orthodox Jewish religion, advance orthodox Jewish education, and to relieve poverty and sickness.

The watchdog received more than 180 complaints about the activities and opened a regulatory compliance case into the charity in December 2023 and engaged with its trustees.

That case determined that the fund-raising activity was outside the charity’s purposes – and not capable of being charitable – and that the trustees had failed to act in the best interests of the charity and its reputation.

It concluded this was misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of charity, as well as a breach of trust.

“It is not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military,” Helen Earner, director for regulatory services at the Charity Commission said.

“Our official warning requires the charity to set things right and is a clear message to other charities to stay true to their established purposes.”

Charities with appropriate purposes can, in law, raise funds to promote the efficiency of the UK armed forces.

However, providing aid or military supplies to any foreign armed force is not a charitable purpose, and no charity can legally undertake such activity.

The official warning imposes a number of requirements on the charity’s trustees to remedy the misconduct and any failure to implement them may lead to further regulatory action.

The charity has been contacted for comment.

Since October 2023, the Commission has opened more than 200 regulatory cases relating to the escalating conflict in the Middle East, involving charities with different positions on the conflict, and has made more than 40 referrals to the police.