Settlement stays and army days: How UK charities promote migration to Israel
People walk past projections of the flags of Israel and the UK displayed on the walls of the old city of Jerusalem on 10 September 2022, days following the death of Queen Elizabeth II
Melissa Muller reports in Middle East Eye on 10 July 2026:
In 2025, 742 Britons migrated to Israel, the highest number since the 1980s. They haven’t been making the move without help. Charities and other organisations registered in the UK are advertising to them through gap-year programmes, subsidised “birthright” trips and migration assistance.
These programmes offer participants the chance to go to occupied Palestinian territory, train with the Israeli army or live in an illegal settlement, Middle East Eye can reveal.
The most prominent charity linking Britons to Israel is United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA), which handles significant capital, declaring an income of £12.8m ($17m) in 2024. Its stated mission is to “inspire young Jews” to forge a “relationship with Israel” by supporting organisations that run trips and gap year programmes.
UJIA’s origins date back over 100 years to its founding as Keren Hayesod, a global fundraising organisation for the Zionist project and then Israel that continues to exist to this day, maintaining strong ties with the Israeli government. In 2010, as prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu signed a formal statement of cooperation with Keren Hayesod.
Today, UJIA is a separate organisation; but it is still listed as Keren Hayesod’s affiliate. The scope of their collaboration remains unclear – neither organisation responded to requests for comment from MEE.
Like UJIA, Keren Hayesod is a registered UK charity. It currently has no British online presence. Internationally, it assists with Aliyah, which describes Jewish migration to Israel under its birthright citizenship (under Israeli law, every Jew has the unrestricted right to immigrate to Israel and become an Israeli citizen). In collaboration with Israel’s government, Keren Hayesod has helped over three million Jews migrate to Israel since its founding in 1920.
UJIA, on the other hand, doesn’t publicly offer Aliyah assistance. Instead, it plants the seeds for migration, for example by advertising birthright trips, which are subsidised tours of Israel.
Trips to occupied territory
While promoting migration to Israel is legal, MEE found that some of the programmes UJIA promotes on its website include excursions that take participants into illegally occupied territories.
An example is the Israel Classic Track gap year programme, which is run by Israeli organisation Aardvark and advertised on UJIA’s website. The programme, which lasts between five and 10 months, takes participants on weekly trips, with destinations including Ein Mabua Natural Spring and the “Judean Desert”, both of which are located in the occupied West Bank.
Aardvark’s UJIA-promoted Tech Track and Culinary Track gap year programmes also include excursions. According to Aardvark’s website, participants visit Hebron, a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank where Israeli settlers live illegally under the protection of the Israeli military.