Thank you for your interest in supporting Palestine.
SanghaSeva holds meditation and action as one path, not two. Both work on the same three roots — greed, ill-will, and delusion, lobha, dosa, moha in the Pali. Turned inward, they are what stilling-within practice learns to see clearly and dissolve. The same skills can be brought to the world through the wholesome and skilful activity of a Meditation in Action retreat. Left unchecked, and turned outward at scale, greed, ill-will, and delusion are what builds cruelty and sustains violent occupation — the situation Palestinians in the West Bank live inside every day.
The organisations below, whether meditators or not, express that outward dissolution of harms. Some feed, heal, or teach. Others stand bodily between a community and the violence aimed at it. Different methods, expressing one aim: stepping up to help greed, ill-will, and delusion disappear, by standing for peace, justice, and a better way.
Whether you can make it to one of our retreats and offerings, you may wish to support one or more of these established organisations working directly with Palestinian communities in the West Bank. They are grouped below by focus. Human rights defenders come first, since their protective presence work is what allows food, medicine and education to reach people at all. Food, medicine and education follow, in that order, though several organisations work across more than one area.
These organisations may not deliver food, medicine or access to education directly. They stand between Palestinian shepherding, farming and Bedouin communities in the West Bank and the settler and military violence that would otherwise displace them — the protective presence and human rights monitoring that keeps land workable and villages standing, so the services below have somewhere to reach.
An Israeli human rights organisation that recruits and coordinates volunteers — it calls them "Human Rights Defenders" — to stay overnight and around the clock in Palestinian shepherding and Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley, the South Hebron Hills, and areas like Mukhmas near Jerusalem, where settler harassment and land seizure happen daily. Volunteers document incidents, call Israeli police or army when residents request it, and where necessary physically stand between a community and those threatening it.
Torat Tzedek doesn't publish a beneficiary count the way a food charity would — the nature of the work is presence, not distribution. Its stated goal is at least ten defenders, around the clock, in each threatened community, which gives a sense of how thinly stretched the current volunteer base is against the need.
Founded in September 2017 by Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who led Rabbis for Human Rights for 21 years. Registered as an Israeli non-profit; donations are tax-deductible in the US and UK via the New Israel Fund.
Donate (US & UK, via NIF) Volunteer as a Human Rights Defender
A World Council of Churches programme that sends trained volunteers, called Ecumenical Accompaniers, to live for three months at a time in West Bank communities, including East Jerusalem. They monitor and report human rights violations, accompany people through checkpoints and to farmland, and support local Israeli and Palestinian peace groups. In the UK and Ireland the programme is run by Quakers in Britain on behalf of sixteen partner churches and organisations.
Over 1,500 international volunteers from 22 countries have served since the programme began in 2002, providing a continuous presence of 25–30 accompaniers in the field at any time.
Founded in 2002 following an appeal from Heads of Churches in Jerusalem; coordinated in Britain and Ireland by Quaker Peace & Social Witness since 2003.
A volunteer movement of Israelis and Palestinians, active since 2000, best known for its long-running weekly presence in the South Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley — accompanying shepherds to grazing land, joining the olive harvest, and physically placing themselves between Palestinian residents and settlers or soldiers during confrontations.
One of the longest-running protective presence groups in the West Bank, with a quarter-century of continuous weekly activity in the same communities.
Founded in 2000 as an explicitly joint Arab-Jewish movement. It is not registered as a formal NGO in Israel; it receives US tax-deductible donations through a fiscal sponsor, the Alliance for Global Justice, and does not currently offer a UK Gift-Aid route. Worth reading their own reporting before giving, given the lighter registration.
Donate (US, via fiscal sponsor)One of the largest UK-based international NGOs, and the only Muslim member of the Disasters Emergency Committee. In Palestine, its food parcels, Ramadan and Qurbani distributions sit alongside longer-running education, health and livelihoods programmes.
Delivered 167 food security and livelihoods interventions globally in a single recent year, reaching over 5.4 million people, with Palestine among its longest-standing country programmes since the 1990s.
Founded in Birmingham in 1984; certified against the Core Humanitarian Standard. UK registered charity (No. 328158).
CAFOD channels UK donations through vetted local partners, chiefly Caritas Jerusalem, which runs health centres, mobile medical teams and food and cash distributions in the West Bank and Gaza.
Helped deliver food parcels to 196,000 households — around 1.18 million people — through its partners, alongside vaccination drives and mental health support run with the World Health Organization.
Founded in 1962 as the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. UK registered charity (No. 1160384).
A specialist hunger and nutrition agency, part of the wider Action Contre la Faim network. In the West Bank its teams focus on food baskets and water access for communities cut off by checkpoints and demolitions.
Reached over 1.4 million Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank with food, water and hygiene support, and was treating close to 1,000 children for acute malnutrition at last count.
Founded in France in 1979 as Action Contre la Faim. UK registered charity (No. 1047501).
The largest American NGO working in the West Bank and Gaza. Anera builds and repairs schools, clinics and water systems, runs preschool teacher-training, and delivers food parcels and medical supplies, working through a 100% local staff.
Built or renovated more than 220 kindergartens across the West Bank and Gaza since 2019, and delivered over $100 million in programmes in a single recent year.
Founded in 1968. Note for UK donors: Anera is a US charity, so UK Gift Aid does not apply.
A British charity with permanent offices in East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Gaza City and Beirut, MAP delivers medicines, trains health workers and runs nutrition programmes across Palestinian communities. Its staff are overwhelmingly Palestinian.
Supported more than one million Palestinians last year, and has done this work for over 40 years.
Founded in 1982 following the Sabra and Shatila massacre. UK registered charity (No. 1045315).
A Palestinian-led, Geneva-registered organisation with a UK office (Taawon UK) that channels donations to a network of over 20 partner organisations on the ground. Education is its core focus: school scholarships, teacher training, STEM programmes and university support.
Has invested over $250 million in education across Palestine and Palestinian refugee camps since 1983, reaching more than one million Palestinians a year.
Founded in Geneva in 1983 by Palestinian business and civil society leaders.
A small, volunteer-run UK charity that funds university scholarships for students from the Nablus and Salfit districts of the West Bank. It runs no programmes in Gaza and doesn't attempt to — its focus stays deliberately narrow, on individual Palestinian students.
Because it is entirely volunteer-led, nearly all funds raised go directly to students rather than overheads.
Founded in memory of Naima Zidan, a Deir Istiya woman and women's-rights activist. UK registered charity (No. 1182754).
US donors: Anera and Taawon (via the American Friends of the Welfare Association, held at the King Baudouin Foundation United States) both offer tax-deductible US giving.
EU donors: Taawon is registered in Geneva with an EU-facing donation route; CAFOD's partner Caritas Jerusalem sits within Caritas Internationalis, so donors in EU countries can often give through their own national Caritas agency.
Pooled UK appeals: The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) periodically runs a joint Middle East appeal combining major UK charities, including several listed here, into a single donation.
Figures above are drawn from each organisation's own published reporting and are the most recent available at time of writing; please check each organisation's website for current figures before giving. Always verify UK charities via the Charity Commission for England and Wales, and US charities via Charity Navigator or CharityWatch.