Richard Kemp

Richard Kemp (born April 1959) is a former British Army officer whom Ha'aretz has described as 'a favorite of the British pro-Israel lobby' for making statements exonerating Israel for the war crimes it committed in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. In July 2009 he told a JCPA audience in Jerusalem: "the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other Army in the history of warfare".. Kemp is of course talking about an army which, according to Judge Richard Goldstone, targeted the "people of Gaza as a whole" in a war that was designed to "humiliate and terrorize a civilian population”. Nor is Kemp's view shared by the Israelis who actually participated in the assault.

Cast Lead Testimony

During Israel's assault on Gaza Kemp appeared on television disputing allegations that Israel was engaged in war crimes. It was not clear however what was the basis of his claims since he had no more access to Gaza in this period than did the world media except Al Jazeera. In June 2009, Kemp wrote a document entitled "Hamas, The Gaza War, and Accountability under International Law" for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in which he claimed that Hamas discarded their uniform once fighting began and deployed women and children as suicide attackers. He also claimed that in Gaza "women and children are trained and equipped to fight, collect intelligence and ferry arms and ammunition between battles".

In October 2009, Kemp also made a presentation to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of UN Watch in response to the Goldstone Report which documents Israeli war crimes committed during its assault on Gaza Kemp concluded by saying that from his "knowledge of the IDF and from the extent to which I have been following the current operation, I don’t think there has ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza".

Affiliations

• Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
• UN Watch
• Gatestone Institute - board of advisers (in formation 2015)

External resources

• Asa Winstanley, The hardcore Christian Zionism of Israel’s favorite British colonel, Electronic Intifada, 10 September 2013.

Links to Israel and the IDF

Kemp has been a trustee of UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers (UK Friends of AWIS, charity 1084272) since 9 January 2018. The Charity Commission register lists him as "Colonel Richard Kemp", and Companies House lists Richard Justin Kemp, born April 1959, as a director of the charitable company from the same date.

Charity trusteeships relevant to the IDF list

Charity	Role	From	To	Source
UK Friends of AWIS	Trustee and director	9 January 2018	–

The charity's objects are the relief of need and suffering of serving and discharged Israeli soldiers and their families. It transfers funds to the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers in Israel, which provides welfare, recreation and education for soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces. Its transfers were £468,625 in the year to 31 March 2024 and £331,003 in the year to 31 March 2025.

The Charity Commission opened a compliance case after concerns that the charity was fundraising for military support for the IDF. On 22 July 2025 it announced that it had found no evidence that the charity's funds had been misapplied outside its objects, but that the trustees had breached their legal duties and were responsible for misconduct and/or mismanagement over a distressing video posted on the charity's website and YouTube channel, and it issued the charity with an Official Warning. Byline Times reported the case in January 2024.

Identity note. The Companies House name and date of birth match the date of birth already given on this page, and the register title "Colonel" matches his army career (high confidence). A second page, Richard Justin Kemp, covers the same Companies House officer.