Two UK charities donate millions to Israeli settlement in occupied West Bank

Defence affairs

Charity Commission criticised for endorsing transfer of about £5.7m to high school in illegal village of Susya.

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

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