by Nicole Lampert, Telegraph
Lack of transparency over pro-Palestine groups’ funding a ‘standing invitation to abuse’
Pro-Palestine marches are being funded by a complex web of foreign donors and state actors, a report reveals.
The report by the US charity watchdog NGO Monitor found examples of Iranian and American far-Left groups bankrolling anti-Israel groups in the UK, creating an “ecosystem” of disruption.
It also found cryptocurrency was increasingly being used to hide funding sources for organisations accused of anti-Semitism, with gift aid also being used by these organisations.
The report’s authors also accuse organisations of deliberately targeting young people with anti-Israel material.
Lord Walney, a former government extremism tsar, will release the report in the House of Commons later on Wednesday.
He will say: “A phenomenon widely portrayed as spontaneous and grassroots is, in significant part, the product of a coordinated and internationally financed network” and “a troubling number of the organisations within it either fall outside any meaningful regulatory framework or maintain connections to actors that no democratic state should tolerate”.