War on Want denies its funding was pulled over anti-Israel views

A charity tackling poverty has rubbished claims by The Sunday Telegraph that its government funding has been pulled because of its anti-Israel views aired in February.

War on Want, which supports Israel Apartheid Week, said the story was “a complete fabrication,” adding that it was last given government money in 2014/15.

The newspaper reported that the Department for International Development withdrew its £260,000 funding after the charity’s representatives spoke out against Israeli policy earlier this year.

But Charity Commission statistics show that the funding ended in March 2015, while War on Want director John Hilary said: “We have not sought UK government support for a number of years now.”

He added: “It is absurd to suggest that we have had our funding pulled. The insinuation that we have been criticised by the government for standing up for the rights of the Palestinian people is equally bogus.”

It comes after the Sunday Telegraph reported that the charity’s staff had been secretly filmed at an event featuring “anti-Semitism, demands for the destruction of Israel or naked support for terror”.