The Funder of Parliament’s Pro-Israel Group Was Reimbursed With Cash Sent From Israel Via Gibraltar

When the former Brexit negotiator Lord Frost went on a “fact-finding delegation” to Israel and the West Bank last month, shortly before the Israeli elections, his flights, accommodation and hospitality were paid for by a little-known company called Cedarsoak Ltd.

So, what, or who, is it?

That question isn’t quite as straightforward as it first appears.

On the face of it, Cedarsoak Ltd is a UK company controlled by two peers: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour) and Lord Polak (Conservative).

It has funded the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Israel since 2015, including at least £85,501 for the 2025 “7 October Parliamentary Commission Report” and £16,501 for that report’s 2026 second edition. The second edition, published this March, added a section headed “Examples of Journalists working for Hamas”.

In the reports’ methodology sections, the APPG lists interviews with “members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the Israeli Police” and “Israeli government ministries”, and “briefings from Israel’s Ministry of Health and the IDF’s Spokesperson Department”. The acknowledgements thank, among those who helped organise visits or met commission chair Lord Roberts in Israel, Mark Regev, Israel’s former ambassador to the UK and Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-time international spokesman.

Between them, the two Cedarsoak-backed reports contain more than 100 references to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has repeatedly claimed has links to Hamas. Several donor countries, including the UK, paused funding after Israel’s allegations in January 2024. A UN investigation into 19 staff later found that nine “may have been involved” in the attacks, and they were dismissed. It found insufficient evidence in nine cases and none in one.

The reports state they were “researched by the staff of the APPG UK-Israel and funded by Cedarsoak Ltd”. However, there is no mention of where Cedarsoak’s funds come from.

That question matters.

Searching for references to ‘Cedarsoak’ took us to a similarly named organisation: Cedars Oak Israel Ltd (CC), a Tel Aviv public benefit company registered at the offices of Israeli law firm Herzog Fox & Neeman, whose lawyers file its paperwork.

Its seven equal shareholders include the UK company, Cedarsoak, and both peers personally. Lord Mendelsohn is its chairman and a director, while Lord Polak sits on its audit committee.

Cedars Oak Israel’s audited 2024 accounts, filed in Hebrew, record ₪675,565 spent on “delegations” and “projects” as its own activities. But it was the UK company – Cedarsoak, which funds the APPG on Israel – which carried them out, and £147,687 was owed to Cedarsoak to reimburse it.

The Israeli company reported just one donor in 2024. Its entire income that year, ₪743,488 (c.£162,500), came from Line Trust Corporation Limited, a Gibraltar trust company belonging to Hassans, Gibraltar’s largest law firm, which acts as professional trustee for clients. Gibraltar, a UK overseas territory, has a far less open company register than Britain’s Companies House, and access to its register of beneficial owners is restricted. When asked who Line Trust Corporation acted for, and who its beneficial owners were, Byline Times was told by Gibraltar authorities to ask Line Trust’s directors. The firm did not respond to our request.

Israeli filings show that Israel’s charity regulator had questions about the source of funds.

The regulator wrote to Cedars Oak Israel’s lawyers in October 2025, saying: “Since these are shareholders who are ‘members of the House of Lords’, I would be grateful for details of why this is not a ‘foreign state entity’.” Under Israeli law, that term means a foreign, that is non-Israeli, state or government body. The lawyers replied that the donor was not one. Again, we do not know who that is.

In a way, that is moot. Parliamentary rules require APPGs to name any third party that “ultimately funded” a benefit. Parliament’s registers name only “Cedarsoak Ltd” as funder of the APPG’s work and parliamentarians’ trips. For 2024 at least, Israeli filings indicate that Cedarsoak was not the ultimate funder of its delegations and projects: Cedars Oak Israel reimbursed it, using Line Trust’s money. The filings do not say which trips or projects were covered.

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What the Israeli Filings Say

What makes this important is that the UK firm’s objects, as rewritten in November 2025, are strikingly banal: “administrative and operational support services”.

But the aims and objects of its Israeli counterpart are far more strident. It told the Israeli registrar it took “an active part in shaping the narrative in the British Parliament” and sought to influence British public opinion and policy towards Israel.

The Israeli company states it exists “to support the strengthening and advancement of relations between Britain and Israel and to serve national objectives, including in matters of governance, trade, security, innovation, technology, scientific and academic cooperation and support for diverse communities”. Whose “national objectives” is not stated.

Its 2024 verbal report to the registrar says its activities include parliamentary delegations, briefings and “strategic public diplomacy”. It says it worked to influence British public opinion and policy on issues such as the 7 October Hamas attacks, antisemitism, UNRWA, Iran and BDS.

Its audited 2024 accounts, approved on 5 June 2025, list projects on UK–Israel relations, “anti-Israel bias at the UN”, BDS, Iran, 7 October and ‘Operation Swords of Iron’ (Israel’s term for the war in Gaza), “media bias” and “lawfare”.

And its goals for 2025, set out in its report to the registrar, were: facilitating delegations; “strengthening Britain–Israel relations and deepening support for Israel in the British political and public arena”; “deepening engagement with British members of parliament from all parties”; continuing “public diplomacy” following the 7 October attack; and “combating disinformation and antisemitism among British decision-makers and the public”.

The 2024 report uses the root “הסברה” – ‘hasbara’ – twice. It means “explaining”, and the report uses it in that generic sense, though hasbara is also the name for Israel’s state public-diplomacy effort abroad.

Line Trust Corporation Limited, the Gibraltar funder (or conduit), is recorded as a “foreign corporation” in Israeli filings, with the purpose of the donation listed as “ongoing activity”. In its 2024 report, filed on 26 June 2025, the company answered “no” to receiving foreign-state donations above ₪20,000 and recorded support from the Israeli state as zero.

But the money is unlikely to have come from Line Trust itself. The firm is a professional trustee, which typically gives money on behalf of clients. It has previously made an unrelated donation “on behalf of a client”. Again, we don’t know who.

In October 2025, Cedars Oak Israel’s lawyers told the regulator that the donation had been used to reimburse the UK firm, Cedarsoak Ltd, for earlier expenses.

The lawyers said the money “was received from a third party that is not connected to the shareholder or to its shareholders (members of the House of Lords). The donor is not a foreign state entity.”

On 5 November 2025, the regulator replied, in what it called a general observation: “On receiving a donation from a foreign state entity, it should be noted in general that, to fulfil the purposes of the law on this subject, it is advisable to check that it is not a donation that was in substance received from a foreign state entity.”

Cedars Oak Israel has consistently declared no foreign-state donations in its Israeli filings, and nothing Byline Times has seen shows any government funding or directing its work.

And while foreign governments are barred from funding APPG secretariats “directly or indirectly”, foreign private funding of APPGs is not banned. But the revelations raise questions about who is ultimately funding one of the key bodies shaping debate on Israel in Parliament.

On 26 June 2025, Lord Polak signed the Israeli company’s audit committee recommendation to approve the 2024 accounts, which include the debt to Cedarsoak – the company he co-runs.

The Money Trail in 2024

• An unidentified source, most likely a client of Line Trust Corporation Limited (Gibraltar), provides the money.
• Line Trust Corporation Limited gives ₪743,488 to Cedars Oak Israel, accounting for 100% of its income. The company’s lawyers say the donor is “not connected” to Cedarsoak or its shareholders and is not a foreign state entity.
• Cedarsoak Ltd runs the delegations to Israel and research projects, fronting the costs.
• Cedars Oak Israel books them as its own activities and owes Cedarsoak £147,687, which under Israeli notice rules could not be paid before late January 2025.
• Parliament’s registers record only “Cedarsoak Ltd” as the funder of the APPG’s benefits and parliamentarians’ trips.

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Rules and Registers

Lord Frost’s register of interests records a “visit to Israel and West Bank, 4–9 October 2026, as part of fact-finding delegation; programme included visits to communities in southern Israel affected by 7 October 2023 attacks and Israel–Hamas war; meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials and politicians, Palestinian civil society representatives, NGOs and British Ambassador to Israel; [with] flights, accommodation and hospitality paid by Cedarsoak Ltd”. No value for the trip is given, and peers are not required to declare that.

Also on the trip was Lord Mendelsohn’s chief of staff, who is also the APPG’s enquiry point. The staff register records that her trip was paid for by Cedarsoak too. The minutes of the APPG’s inaugural meeting on 10 September 2024 record that its secretariat – the group’s administrative support – was provided by this same individual, who was then also a paid Cedarsoak consultant. Her paid consultancy for Cedarsoak ended on 9 July 2026. It is not clear who else attended Lord Frost’s trip.

On 4 November 2025, after reports about Cedarsoak first emerged in Middle East Eye, the company passed a written resolution signed by both peers. It added new objects (i.e. its stated mission), for “administrative and operational support services and to support social investment principles”, with no mention of Israel or Parliament.

More interestingly, however, the UK firm also added an eyebrow-raising clause: an “absolute requirement that the Directors must take steps to prevent the company accepting donations or funding of any type from foreign Governments[,] their agents or nominees”.

This was six days after the Israeli regulator’s question about potential ‘foreign state’ funding (though the Israeli question concerned possible British state involvement, and there is no evidence the two are linked).

Note the wording: a duty to “take steps” to prevent foreign state funding. It was not retrospective, and does not cover private foreign donors.

While the UK company’s unaudited accounts show it had no debtor at 31 December 2024, the Israeli audited accounts say Cedarsoak was owed £147,687 at that date.

The APPG on Israel is co-chaired by Conservative Bob Blackman MP and Labour’s Damien Egan MP. Neither responded to a request for comment.

The APPG has registered benefits worth at least £247,500 from the UK firm, Cedarsoak (listed in earlier years as Cedars Oak Ltd) since 2015.

The APPG registered both recent “benefits” from Cedarsoak Ltd within 28 days, as required, and held its AGM on time. But the register must name “any third party who ultimately funded the benefit”. It names only Cedarsoak Ltd.

Secretariats must be listed and, for support worth more than £1,500, registered, which does not appear to have happened in this case.

And groups taking above £1,500 a year must publish an annual report and a foreign-government due diligence statement. The APPG on Israel does not appear to have published either document at time of writing.

Date	Source	Benefit	Value (from)
18 March 2026	Cedarsoak Ltd	Second edition of report	£16,501
18 March 2025	Cedarsoak Ltd	7 October report: research, writing, design, launch	£85,501
2015–2020	Cedars Oak Ltd	Providing the APPG’s secretariat (five entries) and 2016 visit to Israel	c.£145,500
2016	Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Visits to Israel (two entries)	£22,502

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Parliament and Palestine Groups Respond

Responding to our findings and questions on whether any rules have been broken, a spokesperson for the House of Lords authorities told Byline Times: “We cannot comment on your statements about Cedarsoak Ltd. We do not hold any information about its funding.

“Non-financial interests are not registrable [by peers]…Shareholdings in companies are registrable if they amount to a controlling interest or if they exceed £100,000 in value. The other types of post are only registrable if they are financial interests (i.e. if the member receives a salary, fee or other benefit).”

On declaring the value of overseas trips, they said: “Only the name of the government, organisation or individual which met the cost needs to be provided. The value of the visit does not need to be registered.”

The revised Lords Code of Conduct, which took effect on 5 April 2025, removed the requirement to register non-financial interests.

All non-financial interests were removed from members’ Register entries around that time – which perhaps explains why Cedarsoak Ltd does not appear on either director’s Lords register.

Members’ staff must register all paid work, and any gifts, benefits and hospitality worth more than £300 from a single source in a calendar year.

Relevant financial interests must be declared. As for non-financial interests, the Guide to the Code says: “Members are not required to declare non-financial interests but may do so if the member considers a non-financial interest to be relevant to the matter under discussion and if time allows.” The latter is therefore at peers’ own discretion.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which keeps the APPG register, told this outlet: “The Registry Office does not comment on individual entries in the APPG Register nor does it provide an interpretation of the APPG Rules or the Guide to the APPG Rules.”

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), a pro-Palestinian legal campaign group, said our revelations “raise serious questions about who is ultimately financing, coordinating and directing activities intended to influence the British Parliament”.

“What is particularly concerning is the apparent discrepancy between Cedarsoak’s limited description of its UK activities and the Israeli entity’s reported acknowledgment that it actively participated in shaping parliamentary discourse, while recording the UK company’s parliamentary delegations and research projects as its own,” the group said in a statement.

“The involvement of an overseas entity, opaque funding arrangements and apparent coordination of parliamentary activities warrant closer scrutiny” of whether any foreign power is directing the activity, the spokesperson added.

“The critical question is not simply where the money originated, but who exercised influence over the objectives, content and execution of these parliamentary activities. These arrangements require greater transparency so that the public can understand whose interests are being represented in Parliament.”

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said: “There are serious questions for the APPG on Israel to answer. Transparency is key.”

Lord Polak, Lord Mendelsohn, Lord Frost, Cedars Oak Israel (via Herzog Fox & Neeman), Line Trust, and the APPG chairs did not respond to requests for comment.

With thanks to Ruthi Brandt and two other translators for Hebrew translations.

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