John McDonnell urges regulator to rethink decision to clear Campaign Against Antisemitism
Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP has criticised the UK’s Charity Commission for closing a probe into the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a charity that described the government’s decision to restore funding for the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees as “obscene”.
According to the UK's charity law, an organisation cannot be a charity "if its purposes are political". The CAA has been accused of political partisanship.
In April 2020, Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) filed a complaint with the Charity Commission against the CAA, accusing it of acting as a "highly politically partisan organisation which does not deserve charitable status".
JVL alleged that the CAA had persistently conflated antisemitism with criticism of Israel and accused Labour Party activists of antisemitism with "minimal" supporting evidence.
The CAA, which was founded in 2015 and says it is "dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism", played a leading role in antisemitism allegations against the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and has since pursued complaints against Labour MPs.
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In September 2021, the CAA described JVL as an "antisemitism-denial group" and a "sham Jewish representative organisation", a characterisation that the organisation strongly condemned.
In April 2022, JVL complained again to the Charity Commission, which then said in January 2023 that it was "assessing concerns" about the CAA and that it had opened a regulatory compliance case against the organisation, according to a report in the Guardian.
But in May, the Charity Commission closed the case, saying that Jewish Voice for Labour “has not demonstrated it has the required legal standing to make such an application”.
Now, the commission is facing fresh calls to investigate the organisation.
'Hostile towards the Jewish state'
On 3 September, the CAA attacked the Labour government, denouncing its decision to suspend 30 out of 350 export licences for arms sales to Israel. It also lambasted the government for restoring funding to Unrwa, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, in July.
The CAA published a statement slamming the partial arms ban as “obscene”. It also claimed that Unrwa “is, at best, reckless to Hamas’s use of its premises and personnel for purposes of terror and, at worst, complicit”.
A UN-commissioned report earlier this year found that Israeli authorities had not provided "any supporting evidence" to back up allegations of Unrwa staff links to Hamas.
The CAA also said that the government’s “decisions thus far have all been hostile toward the Jewish state - decisions announced by a foreign secretary who insists that his government supports Israel while sanctioning it”.
John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor under Corbyn, wrote to the Charity Commission last week urging it to “consider afresh” whether the CAA’s actions have violated its charitable status. McDonnell is currently not affiliated with Labour in parliament, as he was suspended for six months after voting against the government over child benefits.
'I was shocked at the tone of these public attacks coming from what is listed by the Commission as a charity'
- John McDonnell MP
In the email, seen by Middle East Eye, McDonnell said he finds it “difficult to accept that, given the evidence presented to your body on the political behaviour of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Commission has not undertaken the thorough and comprehensive investigation of the organisation’s charitable status that I would have thought these serious complaints merit”.
He noted that the CAA has recently “engaged in highly political and contentious public attacks on the government and individual government ministers".
“I was shocked at the tone of these public attacks coming from what is listed by the Commission as a charity,” he said.
McDonnell also quoted Sir Geoffrey Bindman, a prominent lawyer and writer on human rights, and the founder of law firm Bindman & Partners.
Reflecting on the CAA’s 3 September attack on the government's policy, Bindman remarked: “There being no evidence of antisemitism by the UK government or others targeted by CAA, the Charity Commission should consider afresh whether the actions of CAA violate its charitable status.”
McDonnell told MEE: “I have written to the Charity Commission because I believe that it is critically important that the Charity Commission fulfils its role effectively in investigating thoroughly and fairly all complaints.”
The CAA drew public scrutiny earlier this year after it released footage in April 2024 showing its CEO, Gideon Falter, being told by a police officer at a pro-Palestinian protest that his "openly Jewish" appearance could antagonise protesters.
The incident led to widespread condemnation of the police officer, but a longer video released later showed the officer saying that Falter had walked into the middle of the march, and was “looking to try and antagonise”.
Lord Mann, the government's antisemitism tsar, said Falter's intention at the protest had been "quite explicit" - and accused the CAA of “not playing it straight”.
The CAA has previously been criticised for its activities.
In 2015, the all-party parliamentary group against antisemitism said: “It is important that the [CAA’s] leadership do not conflate concerns about activity legitimately protesting Israel’s actions with antisemitism, as we have seen has been the case on some occasions.”
MEE has contacted the Charity Commission and the Campaign Against Antisemitism for comment.
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