According to the UKLFI Charitable Trust's website, UKLFI set it up in September 2016 "to facilitate fund raising from UK donors for parts of its activities that are charitable under UK law".[1] UKLFI Ltd, a private company, was incorporated in 2010.[2] This sort of dual structure typically allows organisations to comply with UK charity law and receive tax-deductible donations, all while undertaking political activities not usually permitted to charities.[3]
UKLFI is known for launching numerous legal claims against what it sees as anti-Israel activities, sometimes described as "lawfare".[4] It challenged the UK Government over its suspension of 30 arms export licences to Israel and raised a complaint about the International Criminal Court’s seeking of arrest warrants against Israeli ministers.[4]
Activities
UK Lawyers for Israel was sued for libel by Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) after UKLFI had been targetting them since 2018, alleging DCIP had links to terrorist groups. The two parties settled out of court.[5]
The group was scheduled to host a speaker from Regavim, a pro-settler organisation founded by Bezalel Smotrich. The subject of the talk was to be "The Struggle to Preserve Israel's Land". The event was criticised by the Jewish Labour Movement and Yachad. Vivian Wineman, the former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called Regavim "the worst racist representatives of Israel politics" and said they "do more to legitimise the Palestinian cause than any number of speeches from pro-Palestinian MPs." The talk was eventually cancelled, which UKLFI said was due to a planned protest by "a consortium of BDS activists and anti-Israel groups".[6]
In 2019, UKLFI accused two British textbooks of "anti-Israel propaganda." In response, the textbook publisher Pearson withdrew the books and coordinated with UKLFI in rewriting the material. The resulting revisions were criticized by John Chalcraft, a Middle East history professor at the London School of Economics as pro-Israel "propaganda under the guise of education". Pearson subsequently withdrew the textbooks again as a result.[7]
In 2023, UKLFI filed a complaint against Chelsea and Westminster Hospital over an artwork display made by children in Gaza. The complaint said that the art made Jewish patients feel "vulnerable, harassed and victimised". UKLFI CEO Jonathan Turner called the display "a wall of anti-Israel propaganda." The hospital removed the artwork in response to the complaint.[8][9]
Gaza War
During the Gaza War, Jonathan Turner criticized a Lancet analysis on impact of the conflict on life expectancy in Gaza. Turner stated that the war might reduce obesity in Gaza and "increase average life expectancy in Gaza".[10] The Palestine Solidarity Campaign called Turner's remarks "utterly sickening" and that they "illustrate exactly what it means to be 'for Israel' and how low its apologists are prepared to sink in their attempts to justify genocide in Gaza." The Council for Arab-British Understanding said that Turner's comments were "atrocious". In response, Turner said his statement was "accurate and objective" and that the Lancet letter was based on "entirely unfounded speculation, which also ignored factors that might result in lengthening the lives of Gazans".[10]
On 27 May 2025, a report was published by UK advocacy organization CAGE International accusing UKLFI of "concealing its funding sources, refusing to disclose the financial backers driving its campaign of professional harassment and governance, and institutional racism".[11] In August 2025, it was reported that the UK Charity Commission was investigating a complaint against UKLFI, raised by CAGE International.[11] That same month, the Public Interest Law Centre and the European Legal Support Center, a pro-Palestine advocacy group, filed a complaint with the Solicitors Regulation Authority against UKLFI over its alleged use of SLAPPs and operating as an unregulated law firm.[12]
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