November 20th, 2007 by NGO Monitor Staff | Category: Boycott / Divestment, Government Funding, War on Want, EU

Comic Relief is one of the UK’s major charity campaigns, which has raised over ₤67 million since its establishment in 1985. According to their website, “The idea was simple - use comedy and laughter to raise money and change lives - while making sure that everyone had great fun at the same time.”

But it turns out that in 2006 Comic Relief contributed ₤189,000 to UK registered charity War on Want (WoW). As NGO Monitor has reported, WoW claims to campaign “against the root causes of global poverty, inequality and injustice,” placing great emphasis on its “Palestine” campaign. Despite a number of investigations by the UK Charity Commission for its political activities, WoW continues to ignore Palestinian terrorism, misrepresent international law and promote apartheid rhetoric, to justify boycott, sanctions and divestment campaigns against Israel. War on Want (WoW) also continues to use anti-Semitic imagery in its criticism of Israel. It has also adopted traditional anti-Semitic libels (such as “poisoning the wells”), repeating unsupported allegations that the IDF targets Palestinian water sources as a “punitive and discriminatory tool”.

Its not clear how Comic Relief’s donation to WoW is spent. But even if grants are directed toward humanitarian projects, money is fungible and increases the NGO’s credibility. WoW’s total budget of £1,432,348 includes £535,536 allocated to “campaigning and policy work,” a major chunk of which is spent delegitmizing Israel. It is a shame that such an admirable fundraising organization as Comic Relief, loved by the British public for its well-known projects and television productions, supports a group such as WoW.