A Government Department Cancelled a Charity Bake Sale for Palestine

A government department cancelled a bake sale in support of Medical Aid for Palestinians this week, claiming the organisation undertook political lobbying, Novara Media understands.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) had organised a bake sale in support of the UK charity on Thursday, but officials said the event could not go ahead due to the charity’s supposedly politically sensitive nature.

Novara Media understands that officials noted that Jewish staff members had expressed concerns and even anxiety about the PCS’s position on Palestine. The union has issued several statements of solidarity with the Palestinian people, while departmental members have asked to halt work over concerns of abetting genocide.

Officials objected in particular to Map’s political lobbying of the government. Under UK law, charities are prohibited from conducting politically partisan work – though they are permitted to lobby the government in accordance with their charitable aims.

In response to the decision, PCS members in DESNZ wrote to secretary of state Ed Miliband on Monday, calling out “racism” and “anti-Palestinian conduct” in the department reflected by the decision to cancel the bake sale (Novara Media understands Miliband was not involved in the decision). The letter added that officials’ implication that the bake sale could risk causing “distress to Jewish colleagues” was antisemitic, “as it presumes that this group would not support this action”. Miliband has not responded to the letter.

The Charity Commission lists Map’s charitable objects as “the relief of poverty and the prevention and relief of sickness amongst inhabitants of the Middle East region, refugees and other displaced persons and in particular those refugees displaced from the former British mandate of Palestine”.

The charity’s aims also include “the advancement of education amongst inhabitants of the Middle East region, refugees and other displaced persons and in particular those refugees displaced from the former British mandate of Palestine.”

Map’s campaigns, even those directed at the government, would appear to be in line with its stated aims. In a recent campaign, Map calls on members of the public to “demand Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper take action to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza”. In August, an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis confirmed the presence of famine in Gaza, whose last remaining university was demolished by the IDF in January last year in what international analysts have called “scholasticide”.

Rohan Talbot, Map’s director of advocacy and campaigns, wrote in a statement to Novara Media: “Map is a registered UK charity working to provide essential healthcare services and uphold Palestinians’ rights to health and dignity. Those rights will only be fully realised when the political root causes of humanitarian needs – including occupation, forced exile and, in Gaza, genocide – are addressed. Alongside our lifesaving medical work, we therefore undertake campaigning, advocacy and public communications in line with our core mission. This is common practice among charities working across a range of domestic and international issues.”

Despite its longstanding support among even centrist Labour MPs – Labour peer Helena Kennedy is an honorary patron of the charity, while health secretary Wes Streeting has been part of its delegations to Palestine – Map has long been controversial within the civil service, where association with it is thought to run contrary to the civil service code’s commitment to impartiality.

In their letter to Miliband, PCS members claim that in 2018, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DESNZ’s earlier incarnation) banned a talk from Map, inviting the opprobrium of then-business secretary Greg Clarke, who had previously joined a Map delegation to Palestine: “Your Conservative predecessor was horrified by the department’s behaviour and admonished them for it,” PCS members wrote to Miliband. The 2018 event went ahead after Jeremy Corbyn reportedly allowed the civil servants to use office space he had as leader of the opposition.

Yet even as political consensus shifts on Palestine – with Starmer recognising Palestine this week – and though the official position of the UK government is that more aid, medical and otherwise, should be provided to Palestinians, it appears Map remains unwelcome on Whitehall property, an informal proscription that PCS members in DESNZ and other government departments have circumvented by holding “bucket shakes” outside government buildings.

This is not the first time a public body has had a meltdown over a Palestine bake sale. Last year, Novara Media revealed that the Francis Crick Institute, a UK charity and centre of scientific research, was embroiled in a bitter and public dispute following a Map-fundraising bake sale.

“We are heartened that so many supporters are currently undertaking fundraising efforts to support Map,” said Talbot, “and we deeply appreciate this show of solidarity. It is regrettable that this fundraising bake sale was not allowed to go ahead, and we are grateful to the organisers for their support for Map.”

DESNZ declined to provide Novara Media with an official comment.