Virginia AG to probe pro-Palestinian group with alleged ties to Hamas

A prominent pro-Palestinian nonprofit accused of supporting Hamas is officially being investigated for possible illegal fundraising to “support” terrorists.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said Tuesday that he ordered the investigation into American Muslims for Palestine because he “has reason to believe” it may be illicitly raising cash in violation of state laws.

“The Attorney General will investigate allegations that the organization may have used funds raised for impermissible purposes under state law, including benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations,” his office said Tuesday.

He claimed the group, also known as AJP Educational Foundation Inc., may also be soliciting donations without having first registered with the state’s Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs.

AMP is the “leading organization” providing “anti-Zionist” training to Muslim and student groups across the US, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which accuses the group of providing a platform of antisemitism and having extreme anti-Israel views.

Miyares said his office will now look into the allegations made in a federal lawsuit filed in Chicago that the Falls Church-based organization is a reconstituted version of an earlier pro-Palestinian group that was found liable for funding Hamas operatives.

The suit was brought by the parents of David Boim, who was killed by Hamas in a 1996 attack in the West Bank of Israel.

In 2004, the Boims won a $156 million civil judgment against the earlier group, the Islamic Association for Palestine, but it shuttered before they were able to collect most of the award.

AMP was then formed in 2006 with many of the same board members and the same executive director, a US district judge found last year.

Its executive director, Osama Abuirshaid, has since expressed sympathy on social media for Hamas and participated in a 2021 conference featuring convicted Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacker Leila Khaled, Hamas co-founder Sami Khater and Hamas senior official Mohammad Nazzal, according to the Washington Examiner.

AMP’s board also includes Saleh Sarsour, who did jail time for helping fundraise for Hamas in the late 1990s, according to an FBI memo.

The memo claims Sarsour then became friends with Hamas leader Adel Awadellah in prison.

But the group said many of the claims made in the Boims’ lawsuit, which is ongoing, are “heavily disputed,” according to the Washington Post.

It also slammed Miyares’ investigation as the “latest attempt to smear and silence American Muslims who speak up for Palestinian human rights,” calling the probe “not only defamatory, but dangerous.”

“Instead of working to protect the people of Virginia from the wave of Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian hate sweeping across the nation, Jason Miyares is contributing to the hate with tired Islamophobic tropes and promises of a witch hunt straight from the McCarthy era,” the group said in a statement.

It went on to accuse the attorney general of “attempting to secure political points with hateful extremists.”

AMP describes itself on its website as a “national education and grassroots-based organization dedicated to educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage.”

It says it tries to publicize the plight of Palestinian refugees as well as human rights abuses and the construction of Jewish settlements in the region.

The group also claims it is funded by donations made within the US, and opposes antisemitism.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations also condemned Miyares’ investigation as “dangerous and defamatory political posturing.”

“Targeting Muslim and Palestinian American organizations with baseless and irresponsible smears threatens the safety of their staffers and the communities they serve,” the group said online.