British charities referred to UN for ‘aiding crimes against Palestinians’
UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese speaks at a press conference at a session of the UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, 27 March 2024
Imran Mulla reports in Middle East Eye on 4 December 2024:
A number of British charities have been referred to the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, over allegedly “aiding and abetting international crimes against Palestinians”.
These include both the University of Cambridge’s Trinity College and Jewish National Fund UK, a charity which has former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as honorary patrons.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), a UK-based rights group, announced on Monday that it had answered Albanese’s call for evidence ahead of a report to the UN Human Rights Council on “how the private sector has contributed to establishing and maintain Israel’s presence” in the occupied territories.
The ICJP said its submission explains the case studies of four charities, including Trinity College Cambridge and the UK arm of the Jewish National Fund.
Middle East Eye revealed in February that the prestigious Cambridge college, which is one of Britain’s wealthiest landowners, had $78,089 invested in Israel’s largest arms company, Elbit Systems, which produces 85 percent of the drones and land-based equipment used by the Israeli army. MEE also reported that the college had millions of dollars invested in other companies arming, supporting and profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza.
On 7 May, the ICJP submitted a formal complaint to the Charity Commission requesting an investigation into Trinity’s investments. This followed the ICJP issuing two successive legal notices to the college in response to MEE’s initial report.