We are paying for illegal West Bank Settlements

I heard about that today.
Keir Starmer was asked about this today at PMQs. He said the government is actively investigating the matter. Stated that such funding is unacceptable.

I think the MP is being very brave.

Any charities aiding illegal.action should be stopped and have their licenses revoked.

I don’t think the Charities Commission is fit for purposes.

Any charities donating money to illegal activities abroad should be publicly discredited and shut down.

Fallingstar

Any charities donating money to illegal activities abroad should be publicly discredited and shut down.

I think in this particular example it is going to prove even more difficult than it is usually.

I receive regular updates as I am on Haaretz mailing list.
Here is one from an hour ago:

"France bars Smotrich from country for ‘actively promoting annexation’ of West Bank

Britain, Canada, France, Australia and Norway announced on Tuesday they will sanction six Israeli right-wing groups and one far-right activist, describing the measures as a "coordinated action" meant "to hold extremist settlers accountable" for "violence against Palestinian civilians." Those targeted would face asset freezes and travel bans, which are meant to "disrupt the flows of finance" that have allowed them to "act with impunity in the West Bank," the countries said.

France also said it will sanction Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and bar him from entering the country for "actively promoting the annexation of the West Bank." Last week, Smotrich ordered the IDF to begin preparations to demolish the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar ahead of settlement construction in the area. In the U.K., Foreign Secretary Cooper for the first time issued official guidance explicitly advising businesses against trade with illegal Israeli settlements.

In Italy, prosecutors are investigating Israel's far-right police minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, over the treatment of activists who took part in last month's Gaza flotilla, a judicial source told Haaretz on Monday, adding that investigators are looking into allegations of kidnapping, torture and sexual assault of flotilla activists by Israeli authorities. On Friday, France's national anti-terrorism prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation into similar charges

In Israel, the Netanyahu government is completing a broad move for the wholesale legalization and budgeting of illegal outposts beyond the Green Line, some in enclaves deep within Area A, which is fully administered and secured by the Palestinian Authority, and Area B, where the PA shares defense duties with Israeli authorities.

As part of this move, the government passed a decision in an urgent telephone vote last week to allocate over 100 million shekels ($34 million) for the planning of outposts. In the coming days, it plans to approve the allocation of over a billion shekels for the establishment and development of the outposts under the definition of "temporary sites," even before they are fully legalized.

Last week's decision, which passed under the technical title of Planning Legalization of Locales, included a budget of 125 million shekels to promote "initial planning legalization for settlements in the rural area of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], which the security cabinet decided to legalize by December 2025."

Gosh Wyllow, how did this slip through the net?

This is extremely alarming, isn't it?
I wonder how much more we don't know.

Chocolatelovinggran

This is extremely alarming, isn't it?
I wonder how much more we don't know.

A Guardian article from February last year explaining how well-know holiday lets firms are advertising apartments etc in occupied settlements.

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/feb/27/seized-settled-let-how-airbnb-and-bookingcom-help-israelis-make-money-from-stolen-palestinian-land

So that people can go on holiday to a such a place?
And people actually buy into that? 🙄

Maremia, issues like that are published by Haaretz everyday, it's not just one that has evaded attention. It's clear to me at least that the current Israeli regime intend to occupy the whole or most of the West Bank.

Thats why I'm so angry overall. I still have the belief that jewish people have the right to a homeland after centuries of oppression and anti semitism - but this ?

And it's all being done under the cover of a huge Trump induced war, and under the cover of the nature of the current regime's attacks on Lebanon - (and remember Netanyahu has said it intends to occupy 70% of Gaza permanently).

It's an old idealism in me, rooted in the past, that people who have suffered greatly as a culture over centuries, would not then turn and make others suffer. But we are coming up to the 3/4th generation now.

May I recommend others subscribe to Haaretz? It's free, you do get emails, and cannot report on them all, but they do give details like the ones above. And of course some of the reporting has to be questioned, like any other, and cross checked.

Maremia

So that people can go on holiday to a such a place?
And people actually buy into that? 🙄

Our previous home was in a highly desirable location. We had American Jewish "summer" neighbours who live/work in Israel but spend every summer in their Scottish home to avoid the heat.

We'd done a houseswap abroad so our friends asked if we'd like to do the same with their friends in Israel who had a lovely house in "a very beautiful traditional rural village". I took a look on Google; the very beautiful rural village had been stolen from Palestinians. We refused.

And yet to them it was normal and acceptable, butterandjam.

Do you join Hareetz via email?

This is another result of us not having a fair and independent media. The Guardian stands almost alone in exposing scandals like this. Indeed, criticism of Israel is almost a taboo - you are guaranteed to be called anti-Semitic! It’s no different to the ‘Rochdale’ abuse scandal in the sense that truth was silenced for fear of being accused of racism.

What is happening in Gaza and the Palestine is being smothered by the media. Palestinian land is being seized by right wing extremists and claimed as ‘Jewish land’. Land grabbing by Israeli thugs - done with impunity. Surely nobody is surprised by these ‘charity scams’ and the fact that we British taxpayers are unwittingly supporting the land grabs.

To get Haaretz regular daily updates just go here

www.haaretz.com/newsletter/single?segmentId=0000017e-1bbb-d2ef-a1ff-7ffb201a0000

opening the page does not more than give you an idea of their coverage, some news snippets, and a chance to sign up for the daily updates

Thanks Wyllow. Will have a go.

This weekend, the ‘Great Israeli Real Estate’ event is coming to London to auction off stolen Palestinian land.

As if the genocide was not enough, the settler violence is not enough. Israel is now selling Palestinian land to the highest bidder.

If Russia was selling Ukraine land here in London government would stop it immediately. But not if Israel sells Palestinian land here, why? Is our government complicit in Isreal's genocide. I don't think the government mentioned the torture of British activists on the flotilla trying to break the seige.

What?!, Samwam?

Why the hell is that being allowed?

Basgetti

What?!, Samwam?

Why the hell is that being allowed?

Good question

www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/uk-amnesty-condemns-great-israeli-real-estate-event-promoting-illegal-settlement-property-sales-in-london/

Amnesty condoms this says government should stop it going ahead.

Yes, thats the reference I saw too.

and an MP tells it in the HoC

www.youtube.com/shorts/nRK92qO-mGI

Amnesty comments how its slipped under the radar

"The 'Great Israeli Real Estate Event' is one of a series of international roadshows targeting diaspora communities, normalising illegal settlements by marketing them alongside properties in mainstream Israeli cities

You cannot be serious?