The UK Government needs to have a serious rethink.
David Lammy made a brazen intervention (Image: PA)
October 7 was the day everything changed for Israelis. It was the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. In just a few hours, Hamas terrorists murdered over 1,200 people, kidnapped hundreds, and tore apart families and communities. Entire towns were emptied. My neighbours lost their child at the Nova music festival. Others lost siblings, friends, people they saw every day. And even if you didn’t know someone then, you do now — through a soldier killed or wounded in the war that followed.
In those first days, we believed the world would stand by us. That liberal democracies like the United Kingdom would see what had happened for what it was: a democratic state under attack by a genocidal Islamist group. And to be fair, at first there were statements of support. Some of them even felt sincere. But that didn’t last long
In recent months, Britain has gone from ally to accuser. Instead of holding Hamas accountable, British leaders have turned their fire on Israel. Trade talks were frozen. Sanctions were imposed — not on Hamas, but on West Bank settlers.
And most brazenly, Foreign Secretary David Lammy called Israel’s operation in Gaza “morally unjustifiable.” This, while Hamas still holds hostages. While rockets still fly. While civilians in Gaza are still used as human shields by the very people who started this war.
What’s most striking isn’t just what the UK says—but what it doesn’t. Nowhere do British officials mention Hamas’s charter, its open goal of exterminating Jews.
Nowhere do they acknowledge that the war could end today — if Hamas surrendered and released the hostages. These omissions aren’t accidental. They’re policy. And it goes deeper.
According to NGO Monitor, the UK didn’t just turn its back diplomatically — it helped bankroll Hamas even after the atrocities of October 7. As they report: “UK Government documents reveal that Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) officials were aware of Hamas involvement and the significant diversion risks in Gaza cash-assistance programs. Yet, the FCDO pressed ahead, providing millions of pounds in funding to such a mechanism.”
The funds were administered by UNICEF, working in coordination with the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Social Development.
Let that settle in: taxpayer money in Britain went to programs knowingly overseen by a terror group — even after that group massacred Israeli civilians.
Officials didn’t dispute Hamas’s role. They just viewed it as a “reputational” issue — not a matter of security, legality, or ethics. The concern wasn’t whether British pounds were helping fund terrorism. The concern was whether it might look bad.
According to the UN Financial Tracking System (FTS), in 2024, the UK provided UNICEF with approximately $23.1 million for West Bank and Gaza operations (approximately $4.8 million in 2023).
Moreover, the UK Government continues to provide approximately £100 million in funding to UN and NGO activities in the West Bank and Gaza, after the Hamas-orchestrated October 7th massacre, with inadequate, to no, oversight or transparency.
Meanwhile, a Channel 12 investigation by Israeli journalist Omri Maniv uncovered how deeply Hamas is entrenched in the UK. “The UK has effectively become its kingdom outside Gaza,” Maniv reported.
Senior Hamas operatives — some of them British citizens — run major fundraising networks from British soil. According to Israeli intelligence, some of these funds helped finance the October 7 attack.
A former Shin Bet official put it plainly: “The UK is becoming the main country funneling funds to Hamas — even after October 7.” Internal intelligence sources say Britain is now one of the top three countries globally in terms of donations to Hamas.
In fact, in the internal slang of Israeli analysts, the UK is now referred to as Hamas’s financial capital in the West. That’s what British taxpayers are underwriting. That’s what this Government has chosen.
British citizens should ask: why? Why is our Government helping prop up a group that murders Jews and hides behind children? Why is it bending over backwards to placate a narrow voting bloc while selling out its supposed values?
This isn’t foreign policy. It’s appeasement in the face of terror. And it’s a moral disgrace.
Ariel Whitman is and Israeli journalist and host of The Western Spirit podcast
