Green Party leader Zack Polanski has urged the UK government to investigate the sponsorship of the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition by a billionaire who has funded a community centre in an illegal Israeli settlement.
Middle East Eye reported on Thursday that Igor Tulchinsky, a Belarus-born billionaire who has backed the exhibition in a deal estimated to be worth £5m ($6.75m), unveiled a “therapy yurt” in November 2025 in Efrat, an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Home to around 12,000 Israeli settlers, Efrat is built on land seized from four Palestinian villages and is now under UK sanctions.
Tulchinsky has been identified as the primary sponsor of the yurt, which is part of a "community resilience centre" serving Gush Etzion, a bloc of illegal Israeli settlements 12km southeast of Jerusalem.
The billionaire unveiled the yurt alongside Efrat’s mayor, Dovi Shefler, and reportedly dedicated the facility to "Israel's brave warriors and their families".
