British Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned as a patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), Israel's leading humanitarian and environmental charity in the UK, as a result of pro-Palestinian pressure.
The Prime Minister’s office however said the decision was taken as part of a wider review of the Prime Minister’s involvement with charities. Sources said Cameron had limited his responsibilities to charities associated with his constituency or personal interests
But the move, which was hailed by pro-Palestinian groups, is seen as a break with convention, as former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown both stayed on as patrons while at Number 10.
Mr Cameron has already experienced controversy when it comes to affairs in the Middle East – on a trip to Turkey last July he caused huge offence by calling Gaza a ‘prison camp’.
According to the Daiy Mail, it follows a motion tabled by Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn in March that called for the JNF to be stripped of its charitable status, and stated regret that the Prime Minister was a patron of the organisation. He argued that the JNF bought up land in Palestine to establish Jewish settlements before the creation of the state of Israel.
Some accuse it of war crimes and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through its forest-planting activities, a charge dismissed last year by the JNF’s UK chairman, Samuel Hayek, as "a distortion of the truth on the grandest of scales."
JNF Charitable Trust was formed in 1939. "From that moment we raised money to buy land and create the necessary infrastructure to rebuild the Jewish homeland," the organization says on its website.
It raises funds for the building blocks of everyday life in Israel such as reservoirs, irrigation systems, desalination plants, forest planting, recycling schemes, roads, housing and healthcare centres. They are particularly focused on the Negev desert, which comprises 60% of the land area of Israel.
According to The Guardian newspaper, the UK-based 'Stop the JNF Campaign' had led Cameron to withdraw. The pro-Palestinian group wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister this month, claiming the JNF had committed "war crimes" against the Palestinian people and urging his resignation as patron.