Key facts
- Billionaire Igor Tulchinsky sponsored a community resilience center in the Israeli settlement of Efrat.
- The center includes a therapy yurt, dedicated to "Israel's brave warriors and their families."
- Efrat is built on land seized from Palestinian villages and is considered illegal by the UK.
- The UK recently imposed sanctions on Israeli settlements and individuals involved in their expansion.
- Tulchinsky also heads an Israeli defense tech venture capital fund.
- The British Museum has not commented on Tulchinsky's sponsorship amid the revelations.
Igor Tulchinsky, a Belarus-born billionaire and sponsor of the British Museum's Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, has funded a community resilience center in Efrat, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. The center, which includes a therapy yurt, was unveiled in November 2025. Tulchinsky reportedly dedicated the facility to "Israel's brave warriors and their families" and described the yurt as "Israel’s inner Iron Dome."
Efrat is built on land seized from four Palestinian villages and is home to approximately 12,000 Israeli settlers. The UK has declared such settlements illegal and recently imposed sanctions against them, with Foreign Secretary Ed Milliband accusing settlers of "ethnic cleansing" and vowing action against those who finance or facilitate settlement expansion.
Tulchinsky's support for the community center, through an unnamed separate organization, was confirmed by the Efrat Development Foundation. The foundation advertises donor partnerships and support for settlers establishing controversial developments that activists warn will impede the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
Further revelations indicate Tulchinsky heads an Israeli defense tech venture capital fund. He has stated he has provided financial support to the Israeli army since the October 7, 2023 attacks and visits Israel regularly. Artists for Palestine UK has called the British Museum's partnership with Tulchinsky "outrageous."