A UK charity that supports serving and discharged Israeli soldiers and their families is being investigated by the Charity Commission after concerns were raised by a fellow British voluntary organisation over materials it had shared online.
In an article for Byline Times, executive director of Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) Iain Overton highlighted a video published by the UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UK-AWIS) two years ago that appears to show a montage of air strikes and weapons being deployed.
Following the article’s publication this week, a Charity Commission spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have opened a regulatory compliance case into UK-AWIS, and engaged with the trustees of the charity in December 2023.
“We have made no findings at this time.”
Overton, whose 2007-registered charity researches the threat and impact of weapons, told Civil Society he welcomed the Commission’s intervention.
“Whether such actions by UK-AWIS violate the rules and regulations of the Charity Commission is an important question,” he said.
“Their findings will make it clear once and for all the limits as to what can be said or done in the name of charity.”
UK-AWIS, which registered as a charity in 2000, did not respond to Civil Society’s request for comment.
In November, Commission chair Orlando Fraser said the regulator was assessing a “significant number of serious concerns” regarding some charities’ activities in relation to the conflict in Israel and Palestine.
Fraser said the regulator was aware of several “allegations of antisemitic or hate speech” linked to charities in England and Wales.
He said the Commission would act if it found wrongdoing by any of the charities and warned organisations not to “allow their premises or events to become forums for hate speech or unlawful extremism”.
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