The action by the Charity Commission followed a Byline Times investigation into the video, which appeared to show a Palestinian being hit by Israeli munitions
Palestinians carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip on 22 July 2025. Photo: AP /Jehad Alshrafi
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The Charity Commission has issued an Official Warning to a British charity that raises funds for Israeli soldiers, citing serious governance failings after a fundraising video was found to contain distressing imagery – footage first exposed in a Byline Times investigation.
The regulator said the trustees of the UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers (UK-AWIS) had “breached their legal duties” by allowing a video to be published on its website and YouTube channel that appeared to show a person being killed. While a Commission review concluded the footage did not, in fact, show a killing, it found the content to be highly distressing and inappropriate for a UK-registered charity.
In January 2024, Byline Times first reported on the video, which included thermal imaging and a sequence appearing to show a Palestinian being hit by a munition moments after throwing an object. The video also featured airstrikes and combat footage that seemed to be in a style of material typically released by Israeli military sources.
The Commission – who register and regulate charities in England and Wales – found that the charity’s trustees had also been “responsible for misconduct and/or mismanagement over failing to have any policies or procedures in place around the charity’s website and social media platforms”. The trustees had outsourced control of its website and social media to a former executive, and had failed to review or vet the video before publication.
“All of the trustees have failed to act in the Charity’s best interests,” the regulator said, “and manage its resources responsibly by exposing the Charity’s reputation to unnecessary risk. This is a breach of trust or duty or misconduct and/ or mismanagement in the administration of the Charity.”
As part of its enforcement action, the Commission has ordered UK-AWIS to conduct a full review of its digital content, implement a formal social media policy, and ensure its trustees have read and understood relevant regulatory guidance. The case remains open.
The charity’s response to the investigation raises further questions of appropriate spending of charitable funds. Its most recent accounts show that it spent over £53,000 on legal and professional fees during the 2023–24 financial year, a sum attributed to the ongoing regulatory investigation to a person believed to be based in Israel. UK-AWIS no longer appears to maintain a public-facing website.
Despite raising over £750,000 in donations last year, the Commission, however, found no evidence that funds were sent directly to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Previous donor materials seen by Byline Times promoted packages such as ‘Adopt an IDF Combat Unit’ and ‘IDF Enlistment Festival’ sponsorships.
In the last reported financial year, the company sent to The Association for the Wellbeing of Israeli Soldiers donations amounting to £468,625.
The person who made the formal complaint to the Commission about the video following Byline’s reporting, but who wishes to remain anonymous, told this paper: “The Charity Commission must publish the full findings of its investigation. The International Criminal Court has stated it suspects the Israeli Defence Forces may be committing genocide.”
“My original complaint demonstrated that UKAWIS is directly connected to the IDF, both financially and operationally,” they added.
The Commission must explain how it concluded that UKAWIS is not providing material support to the IDF. How can it be acceptable for a UK charity to encourage donations to ‘adopt a combat unit’ accused of war crimes, and for this to be deemed a legitimate charitable purpose? Meanwhile, those protesting against genocide are branded as terrorists
Complainant to Charity Commission
The censure by the Charity Commission also casts a challenge to the BBC, which has repeatedly platformed Retired Colonel Richard Kemp without disclosing his leadership role in UK-AWIS.
A trustee and director of the charity, Kemp appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Stephen Nolan Show on 13 June 2025 to comment on Israeli airstrikes on Iran. Introduced solely as a former British military commander and counter-terrorism expert, he described the strikes as “very successful” and speculated about the collapse of the Iranian regime. Listeners were not informed that Kemp helps run the pro-Israel charity.
This was not the first time the broadcaster has failed to declare his links to UK-AWIS. In November 2023, following a Newsnight segment on Gaza, the BBC admitted it “should have made [Kemp’s] connections with Israel clear”.
These repeated failures come amid mounting scrutiny of the BBC’s editorial treatment of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
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A recent report by the Centre for Media Monitoring found the broadcaster referred to Israeli fatalities up to 33 times more frequently per death than Palestinian ones, often using depersonalised or passive language for the latter.
Internal BBC sources have also pointed to a newsroom culture that is reluctant to challenge Israeli military narratives or use terms such as “war crimes” or “ethnic cleansing,” even when quoted from UN experts.
