The head of the controversial charity, War on Want, has announced he is leaving amid investigations by the Charity Commission into the organisation’s “campaigning and political activities”.
John Hilary, executive director of War on Want, will step down next month after growing controversy about the charity’s work against Israel. War on Want funds Israeli Apartheid Week, an event at universities that Jewish Human Rights Watch has accused of “targeting and harassing Jewish students and inviting anti-Semitic speakers to campuses”.
The Sunday Times newspaper alleged that he was forced out due to complaints which triggered an investigation by the Charity Commission into the group’s “campaigning and political activities”.
In response, he said: “My decision to leave the organisation was taken many months ago, in view of the fact that I have been at War on Want for 12 successful years. Any implication there is another reason is pure fantasy.”
The Charity Commission was asked to investigate by Jewish Human Rights Watch because British law forbids organisations to be deemed charities if their purposes are “political”.
Citing emails seen by the newspaper, The Sunday Times alleged that Commission official Neil Robertson said the regular was not acting on complaints from JHRW but had identified into “regulatory issues of our own that require attention”.
Source: The Sunday Times / Jewish News
