Funding Hebron’s Expansion: A UK Charity Is Quietly Bankrolling One of Israel’s Most Extreme Settler Enclaves
A British nonprofit has been moving money into a Hebron settlement project tied to violence, displacement, and apartheid policies
A British nonprofit, The Jerusalem Trust, has been moving close to £200,000 into Yeshivat Shavei Hevron — a religious school sitting inside one of the most hardline settlement compounds in occupied Hebron. The Guardian exposed the transfers, but the real story is what those payments enable on the ground. Shavei Hevron isn’t a normal school. It’s part of a settlement known for extremist ideology, armed settler patrols, and routine violence against Palestinians. The compound sits in the heart of Hebron’s Old City, where Palestinian shops have been welded shut, streets have been turned into settler-only corridors, and families live under curfews that can last for days. The settlement is built around the site of the 1994 massacre, where Baruch Goldstein — a follower of the extremist Kach movement — murdered 29 Palestinians during prayer. Many settlers in this area still openly celebrate him. That’s the environment this UK charity is financially feeding.
Smotrich has basically turned the West Bank into his personal project, and everyone on the ground is living with the fallout. He didn’t wait for authority to come to him — he carved out a special role for himself inside the government so he could take over the Civil Administration, the office that signs off on settlement construction. Before he muscled in, settlement approvals had to go through the military’s legal system. It wasn’t some moral safeguard, but it at least slowed things down and forced Israel to pretend it cared about international rules. Smotrich ripped that whole setup apart and shoved the power into a civilian office that answers directly to him and the settler movement.
Annexation, doubling the settler population, making Palestinian towns “disappear” — none of this is hidden. He once said a Palestinian town should be “wiped out” after a settler was killed there. He walked it back only because he got heat for it, not because he disagreed. His policies since then make it obvious he meant every word. He sees Palestinians as an obstacle and settlements as the future he’s trying to cement permanently.
The new dormitory for Yeshivat Shavei Hevron is exactly the kind of thing that benefits from his takeover. Under the old system, it would’ve been dragged through legal reviews and international scrutiny. Under Smotrich, it went through like it was already pre-stamped for approval. Rights groups have watched this pattern repeat every time he touches a file. Since he took control, settler violence has climbed. UN monitors have logged it. Israeli human rights groups have logged it. Even some military officials have admitted privately that Smotrich’s directives make it harder to enforce basic protections for Palestinians. Settlers know the guy in charge is on their side, so they act like nothing can touch them — and most of the time, nothing ever does.
Human rights organizations like B’Tselem, Peace Now, and Al‑Haq have warned that expanding Shavei Hevron will mean more settler attacks, more military closures, more Palestinian homes emptied out, and deeper entrenchment of apartheid conditions in Hebron. UN monitors have documented spikes in settler violence every time construction expands or new settler housing is approved. One advocate said the funding isn’t “supporting education” — it’s underwriting the machinery of domination. And this isn’t just about violence. Every time a settlement expands, the Israeli military imposes new restrictions on Palestinian movement, shuts down streets, increases patrols, and tightens surveillance. Hebron’s Old City has already been carved into zones where Palestinians can’t walk, can’t drive, and sometimes can’t even open their front doors without being stopped.
The Jerusalem Trust’s involvement raises legal questions too. UK charities are required to ensure their funds don’t contribute to human rights abuses or political projects outside their stated purpose. The Charity Commission has previously investigated UK groups for funneling money into settlements under the guise of “religious education.” British officials have already acknowledged concerns that charitable money is being used to support illegal settlements. This case forces regulators to confront the fact that “religious education” can be a cover for financing land grabs and violence.
There’s also the international law angle. The International Court of Justice and multiple UN resolutions classify Israeli settlements as illegal. States are obligated not to support them, directly or indirectly. When a UK charity sends money to a project that expands a settlement, it’s not just a moral problem — it potentially places the UK in violation of its own commitments under international humanitarian law. The UK government has repeatedly said settlements are illegal, yet its own charity sector is helping fund their violent expansion.
And this isn’t new. Researchers have documented a long pattern of UK and US nonprofits funneling money into settlements under soft labels like “community development,” “security support,” or “heritage preservation.” In Hebron, foreign funding has helped sustain surveillance systems, armed civilian patrols, and religious institutions tied to extremist settler movements. Some nonprofits have even funded legal defense for settlers accused of violence. Every expansion — every new building, every new dormitory — comes with more soldiers, more checkpoints, and more Palestinian families pushed out. Hebron is one of the clearest examples of how foreign money can reshape a city’s reality: a few hundred settlers, backed by military force and international donors, controlling the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The bottom line is a British charity is helping pay for the expansion of an illegal settlement in one of the most volatile places in the West Bank. They will be felt by Palestinian families who already live under escalating settler violence and suffocating military control. This isn’t some charity. It’s political investment in a project built on violent dispossession.