A Charity Tribunal appeal has been lodged by John Nicholson from the Stop the JNF Campaign against a decision by the Charity Commission that JNF-linked charities should not be removed from its register.

In March 2013 the Charity Commission received an application from the Stop the JNF Campaign to remove three charities - JNF Charitable Trust, JNF Educational Trust and KKL Charity Accounts - from its online register.

Stop the JNF Campaign alleged that JNF UK, which supports communities in Israel, had set up the three charities for improper use.

It told the Charity Commission that KKL-JNF, of which JNF UK is a branch, is a para-statal organisation in a foreign country; that JNF UK and its charities are involved in violations of human rights and international law; and that JNF's aims were in never in fact for public benefit.  The organisation was mistakenly registered as a charity, the Campaign contended.

The Charity Commission judged that Stop the JNF Campaign and its members were not persons who are affected or may be affected by the charities as they did not have an interest which is materially greater than or different from the interests of an ordinary member of the public.

But it did accept that it had an obligation to remove organisations no longer charitable under charity law, and considered the status of the three charities.

In May 2013 the Commission determined that all three charities were established for exclusively charitable purposes and should not be removed from the register.

Stop the JNF Campaign pursued the issue again after the decision. But the Commission reached the same conclusion last December.

Richard Nicholson from Stop the JNF Campaign has now appealed the Charity Commission decision to the Charity Tribunal.

The JNF Charitable Trust's charitable objects are the relief of poverty in Israel; JNF Educational Trust’s are educating about the state of Israel, Zionist history and the Jewish religion; KKL Charity Accounts' are the provision of public benefit for any charitable purposes.