Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)

Activity

• Founded in 1960, as the “official Catholic aid agency for England and Wales and part of Caritas International.”
• Work in the region includes “working with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and secular partners” to: “mitigate disruption to Palestinian families’ daily lives in the West Bank, especially through legal challenges to house demolition, land confiscation and violent attacks.”

Funding

• In FY 2023-2024, total income was £47.9 million; total expenses were £59.2 million, of which £686,000 was spent on Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
• Donors include United Kingdom, Ireland, European Union, United Nations, Christian Aid (UK), Norwegian Church Aid, Trocaire (Ireland), Catholic Relief Services, Islamic Relief Worldwide, and various branches of Caritas International. (See table below for further funding information.)

Political Advocacy

• The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) has provided grants to a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including: Breaking the Silence,  Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), Culture and Free Thought Association, Wi’am, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), Yesh Din, and Islamic Relief Worldwide. (See table below for further funding information.)
• CAFOD partners with and assists in recruiting participants for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
  • EAPPI brings volunteers to the West Bank for three months to “witness life under occupation.” Upon completion of the program, the volunteers return to their home countries and churches where many engage in anti-Israel advocacy, including advocating for BDS campaigns in churches, comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and other delegitimization strategies.
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Oct 7th attack, CAFOD called for the “Acknowledgement of the failure of the international community to effectively engage with any meaningful peace process, and a commitment to work ceaselessly from now on to address the root causes of the violence which must include an end to the occupation,” as well as “Unequivocal support for the ICC to conduct a truly independent investigation into all war crimes to ensure accountability.”
• In August 2022, CAFOD was a signatory on a statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “These Palestinian civil society organisations provide vital services to Palestinians living under occupation…We call on the UK government to uphold its legal and moral duties to the Palestinian people and support Palestinian civil society as its institutions are targeted by Israel’s repressive measures.”
• In October 2021, CAFOD was a signatory on a statement condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the statement, “The risk of operations ending for some of those organisations, is an attack on human rights and will leave Palestinian children and others unable to access adequate and essential services… [the UK Government] must now take urgent practical steps to reiterate its public support to Palestinian human rights defenders and humanitarian and development organisations.”
• In April 2021, CAFOD signed a joint statement welcoming the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch of a formal investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the “State of Palestine.” The statement condemned the UK’s opposition to the ICC investigation, stating that “The investigation is the first genuine hope that alleged perpetrators of the most serious crimes will be held to account for their actions…”
• In January 2019, CAFOD’s program “Step into the Gap,” which offers “opportunities for 18-30 year olds to gain experience, develop leadership skills and spend a year in the service of others,” visited Israel and the West Bank to “experience[] the daily reality of life in the Holy Land.” The trip met with Israeli and Palestinian organizations, including the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), Sadaka Reut, and Caritas.
  • When the volunteers returned to their home counties, they engaged in anti-Israel advocacy. One participant wrote in a blog about her experiences that “The reality experienced by Palestinians has inspired me to speak out on the platforms not just at Newman University but those available to me through volunteering. I hope to inspire those I meet to recognise the need to continue to support CAFOD’s work in the Middle East so that the voices of those displaced, humiliated and experiencing a ‘poverty of rights’ are amplified and acted upon by the international community.”
• In September 2018, Maria Gonzalez, CAFOD Head of International Development, wrote an article referring to Gaza as a “prison.”
• In May 2018, during the violence on the Gaza border, CAFOD condemned Israel’s “lethal force” and called for UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to “urge Israel to show respect for life and restraint towards those demonstrating in Gaza, to call for an independent investigation into recent events in Gaza and put the UK government’s weight behind a renewed effort to end the closure of Gaza.” CAFOD ignored the violent nature of the protests, which have consisted of an organized armed attack on the Israeli border and IDF positions, attempts to destroy and breach the border fence, and sustained arson, rocket, and mortar attacks on Israeli civilian communities.
• In January 2017, as a member of the church umbrella organization CIDSE’s Palestine-Israel Working Group, released a document titled “No Place Like Home: A Reader On The Forced Internal Displacement Of Palestinians In The Occupied Palestinian Territory And Israel,” that was designed as a tool to lobby the European Union. The report calls for European “concrete action” and “promoting accountability” against Israel in order to “address[] the Israeli policies which are the root causes of displacement.”
• Published a July 30, 2014 “Gaza Crisis Appeal,” which condemned the “ferocious and relentless bombardment by the Israeli military on Gaza,” omitting that the military operation was launched in response to over 4,000 Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and in an effort to root out the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including terror tunnels running beneath the border into Israel.
• Together with a number of other highly biased and politicized NGOs, CAFOD “actively supported” a November 2012 conference “initiated by North East Ecumenical Accompaniers” on “Peace and Justice in the Holy Land” that took place in Gateshead, England. Speakers included Nora Carmi, a founding member of Sabeel, who also works for Kairos Palestine, an NGO that promotes the 2009 Kairos Palestine document that calls for BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions), denies the Jewish historical connections to Israel in theological terms, and rationalizes and trivializes terrorism, calling it “legal resistance”; Stephen Leah, who helped prepare the 2010 Methodist Conference statement “Justice for Palestine and Israel”; Bishop Martin Wharton, “who was a member of the international delegation who visited Yasser Arafat in his compound to gain acceptance of international observers for the first elections for the Palestinian Authority after the Oslo accords.” The conference absolved Palestinians from all responsibility in the conflict.
• Published a 2009 report “Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses” – together with Amnesty International UK, Trocaire (Ireland), Diakonia (Sweden), Oxfam International, Christian Aid (UK), Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), Medical Aid for Palestinians, and others – falsely accusing Israel of an “illegal and inhumane blockade,” “collective punishment,” and “occupying” Gaza.
• In 2008, CAFOD co-authored a report “The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion,” which inaccurately accused Israel’s Gaza blockade of being illegal under international law and constituting “collective punishment.” Contrary to these claims, the naval blockade is a permissible tactic used to prevent the smuggling of weapons that will later be used to target civilians in Israel.

BDS Activities

• In April 2025, CAFOD called on the UK government to “act urgently and decisively to suspend arms sales and take meaningful steps to hold Israel to account.”
• In March 2025, CAFOD published an article claiming, “to support peace, the UK government must immediately halt arms sales…to prevent their potential use in violations of international law.”
• In May 2024, CAFOD called for people to urge the UK government to “Call for an end to arms sales to Israel.”
• In June 2023, CAFOD published a case study on “Business activity in the occupied Palestinian territory,” alleging that “UK companies could be complicit in the use and trade of goods produced in the occupied Palestinian territory, under breach of international law.” CAFOD called for individuals to “put pressure on businesses to ensure they are not complicit in human rights and environmental violations – including in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Partners

• CAFOD is a member of CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies. Other organizations include Broederlijk Delen (Belgium), CCFD-Terre Solidaire (France), MISEREOR (Germany), and Trócaire (Ireland).
• CAFOD is a member of the United Nations WASH Cluster (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene). Other members include  Oxfam, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, World Vision, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Norwegian Church Aid, and Terre des Hommes.
• CAFOD also partners with Catholic Relief Services, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), and the Culture and Free Thought Association.

2019-2024 Grants Received (amounts in £)

2017-2024 Grants Donated

Amounts according to quarterly reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits, unless otherwise noted.