The Charity Commission, the regulator of charities in England and Wales, issued the “official warning” after finding the trustees of Jewish charity, the Chabad Lubavitch Centre, had acted “outside the charity’s purposes” and “failed to safeguard its best interests and its reputation.”

The charity was found to have set up a fundraiser page in October 2023 to raise funds for a soldier of the IDF stationed in northern Israel.

The page, which was eventually removed in January 2024 following complaints by pro-Palestine activists, still managed to raise around £2,280. Of those monies, £937 was sent directly to an individual soldier.

According to the Charity Commission, the Chabad trustees were unable to account for how those funds were spent. The remaining funds were spent on “non-lethal military equipment” purchased by the trustees and sent to the same soldier in Israel.

The Director for Regulatory Services at the Charity Commission, Helen Earner, said: “It is not lawful, or acceptable, for a charity to raise funds to support a soldier of a foreign military. 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.”

In UK law, charities with appropriate purposes can 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 Charity Commission listed the charity’s actual purposes as “to advance the orthodox Jewish religion, advance orthodox Jewish education, and to relieve poverty and sickness.”

The official warning imposes a number of requirements on the charity’s trustees to remedy the misconduct and/or mismanagement. Any failure by the charity to implement the requirements in the official warning may lead to further regulatory action.

In a statement, the Redbridge Palestine Solidarity Network (RPSN), a group made up of local residents who lobbied the authorities to act on this issue, welcomed the formal warning but admitted concerns still remain over the center.

“We welcome the formal warning issued to Chabad Lubavitch Centres North East London and Essex for their unacceptable fundraising activities. However, we believe tougher action is necessary, as supporting efforts tied to an ongoing genocide is deeply troubling.

It is alarming they acted so openly, and despite raising concerns with local leaders like Jas Athwal and Wes Streeting, our warnings were not adequately addressed.”

Other Examples

This is not the first Jewish charity that has fundraised for the IDF.

Earlier in 2024, Middle East Eye reported that the Charity Commission had been urged to investigate the UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UK-AWIS), which was also asking for donations to support forces taking part in Operation Swords of Iron.

In a post on its Facebook page on November 17, UK-AWIS said: “Each generous donation allows us to better provide essentials for our frontline soldiers in Operation Swords of Iron.”

Since then, the website and social media content belonging to the British charity under scrutiny over its fundraising activities is “no longer accessible online.”

The number of people killed in Gaza is significantly higher than the figure reported by Gaza’s authorities, a peer-reviewed study by researchers from a leading health research university in the UK has found.

According to findings announced by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and published in The Lancet journal, there were an estimated 64,260 “traumatic injury deaths” in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza put the figure at 37,877 at the time.

This means the ministry has under-reported the death toll due to violence by approximately 41%, the researchers found.

As of October, the number of Gazans killed by violence was thought to exceed 70,000, the study said, based on the estimated underreporting rate.

The IDF has been widely accused of committing war crimes, and even genocide, by human rights organizations.

Israel says it must wipe out Hamas which poses an existential threat to the Jewish state.

Source: 5Pillars

The Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group said it filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of some students at the University of Georgia alleging differential treatment of people of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim descent.

The complaint alleges the University of Georgia’s actions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federal funds recipients from allowing discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. It was filed with the U.S. Education Department and urges a federal probe into the university.

The council said pro-Palestinian students have been the target of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment since Israel’s war in Gaza began, adding the university did not do enough to prevent the harassment or remedy its effects.

The university said it supports free speech and does not discriminate based on race or religion while also enforcing its rules and holding accountable those who violate policies.

There have been numerous protests in the United States, including on college campuses, against U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, with some turning violent.

There has also been anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter protests. Human rights advocates have warned about rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered last Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.

Source: Reuters

Randy Fine, the Republican state representative for Florida, is facing a wave of anger and accusations of Islamophobia after celebrating the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American activist who was fatally shot by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.

“Throw rocks, get shot. One less #MuslimTerrorist. #FireAway,” Fine wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to a post announcing Eygi’s killing last weekend.

Eygi, a US citizen, was shot in the head by Israeli forces during a peaceful protest against illegal Israeli settlements near Ramallah. Eyewitnesses said she was unarmed and “standing there doing absolutely nothing with one other woman” when she was shot.

Fine’s comments have sparked widespread condemnation, calling attention to growing concerns about Islamophobia from US officials.

Many expressed outrage at his apparent endorsement of the killing of an American citizen by a foreign military.

Critics also highlighted what they saw as a double standard in the treatment of public figures. Several people posted about Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who faced backlash and censure for her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea”.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the US, along with its Florida chapter, has called for the Florida legislature to censure Fine for his tweet.

“We struggle to think of another time in modern American history when an elected official openly celebrated the murder of an American by a foreign government and encouraged more such killing. Randy Fine has made it clear where his priorities lie, and it is not with the American people,” stated Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy executive director, on Monday.

“We urge the Florida House of Representatives to censure him for this hateful, un-American rant,” the statement added.

His account on X is filled with posts using hashtags like “#MuslimProblem”, “#BombsAway” and “#MuslimTerrorists”.

Cair has highlighted various instances of Fine using langauge that “dehumanises all Palestinians and uses Islamophobic tropes,” including a comment that read: “Proud to stand with my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, in condemning the Islamic terrorism coming out of Gaza. I fully support Israel using maximum force to punish these animals. #NoMercy.”

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 16,825 children, in Israeli attacks since 7 October.

Source: Middle East Eye

CAIR asserts that the desecration of Islam’s sacred text further demonstrates that the Israeli actions in Gaza are targeting both Islam and the Palestinian people.

One video aired by Al Jazeera Arabic reportedly shows Israeli soldiers burning and tearing copies of the Quran in the Bani Saleh Mosque in northern Gaza. Another video allegedly depicts Israeli forces destroying the historic Grand Mosque in Khan Younis, one of the oldest mosques in Gaza. Al Jazeera said the footage was obtained from cameras of Israeli soldiers and from drones.

“By once again filming themselves burning Qurans and destroying mosques, the forces of the far-right Israeli government have confirmed that their war on the Palestinian people in Gaza is also a war on Islam itself,” said CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, in a statement. The group also called on United States President Joe Biden to denounce Israeli abuses. “The Biden administration must condemn this religious desecration and suspend weapons transfers to the Israeli government to force an end to its campaign of slaughter and starvation in Gaza.”

Hamas has called on Arab and Muslim countries and organizations to condemn and express outrage against Israeli forces for burning copies of the Quran and to take action to defend Islamic and Christian sanctities in Palestine. Additionally, Pakistan has condemned Israel’s bombing of the historic Grand Mosque in Gaza’s Khan Younis and urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to protect the Palestinians by putting an end to Israeli violations of international law, the Pakistani foreign office said.

Destroying or desecrating a Quran is a grave offense under Islam and an insult to the faith of some 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide. During the Israeli offensive on Gaza, Israel has completely destroyed 610 mosques and partially destroyed 214, as well as three churches, according to the Gaza media office. The “Al-Omari Mosque” of Gaza, which was 14 centuries old, was also destroyed. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 40,200 Palestinians and turned large parts of the besieged Palestinian territory into rubble.

Source: CAIR