The NGO Network Orchestrating Antisemitic Incitement on American Campuses » ngomonitor

In the wake of October 7, the exponential rise in antisemitic violence, incitement, intimidation, and harassment on and around campuses in the United States is not the product of spontaneous protests of individuals. Rather, they are tightly coordinated and well-funded by a network of radical and often antisemitic non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Within Our Lifetime, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Samidoun. Under the guise of human rights and justice, these NGOs work to undermine the economic, military and other ties between US and Israel, and to besiege and divide the US Jewish community. 

All of these groups have supported and justified the October 7th massacre, as well as other attacks. Many of the NGOs in the network are directly linked to designated Palestinian terror organizations.

A common feature of all these NGOs is non-transparent funding and structure, as documented in detailed NGO Monitor research. 

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – founded 1993 at UC Berkeley 

• SJP in different forms  is the campus organization most directly responsible for creating a hostile campus environment saturated with anti-Israel propaganda agendas and events, BDS initiatives, and intimidation. Each SJP chapter claims to operate independently although the evidence demonstrates close coordination and shared resources, apparently coordinated through the amorphous National SJP framework. .
• In October 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, SJP published a statement referring to the violence as a “historic win for the Palestinian resistance.” SJP additionally claimed, “This is what it means to Free Palestine: not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors.”
• National SJP and the numerous SJP branches are not registered as 501(c)(3) nonprofits and their structures and operating processes are not transparent. They are not subject to laws requiring financial disclosure. The small amounts distributed by student governments for clubs like SJP do not match the scope of activities. 
• SJP founder Hatem Bazian is also the co-founder of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). According to AMP, “We also work in broad-based coalitions and support campus activism through Students for Justice in Palestine.” Little is known about donors to AJP, which reported $1.7 million in income and $1.2 million in expenses in 2021. 
• Non-transparent funding: WESPAC Foundation, a Westchester, New York-based organization registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, serves as the fiscal sponsor for National SJP. 
• For more information on SJP and AMP funding, read NGO Monitor’s report, “Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP): Available Funding and Other Information.”

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) – founded 1996

• JVP refers to itself as the “Jewish wing” of the Palestinian solidarity movement and as “Jews against Zionism,” notwithstanding the fact that many of its activists are not Jewish.
• JVP’s declared agenda is to create “a wedge” within the American Jewish community, while working toward the goal of eliminating U.S. economic, military, and political aid to Israel. 
• A major component of JVP’s strategy is exploiting the “Jewish” label to deflect evidence of blatant antisemitism within anti-Israel campaigns.
• JVP’s anti-Israel and antisemitic activities and rhetoric include the “apartheid” and “genocide” libels, justifying Palestinian “resistance” (euphemism for the mass slaughter of October 7), embracing terrorists, and promoting antisemitic tropes such as a cartoon that depicted Israeli soldiers joyously drinking the blood of dead Palestinians. 
• Non-transparent funding: Reporting a budget of $3 million in 2021, Jewish Voice for Peace is not transparent about its funding sources. Based on publicly available financial reports from some foundations, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (under its “peacebuilding program”) NGO Monitor was able to identify approximately the US-based donors that account for one-third of JVP’s budget. For details, read NGO Monitor’s report, “Jewish Voice for Peace’s Funding Network.” 

Within Our Lifetime (WOL) – known as Students for Justice in Palestine, NYC until 2019

• Headed by Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder and former chair of SJP-NYC.
• Abdullah Akl, a WOL organizer, also serves as the Director of Advocacy & Civic Engagement for the Muslim American Society.
• Fatima Mohammed, a WOL activist, led CUNY law school’s SJP chapter.
  • In May 2023, Mohammed delivered a commencement speech at CUNY law school calling for a “revolution” against America’s “oppressive” institutions and for her graduating class to “fuel the fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world.” During the speech, Mohammed also expressed her support for the Holy Land Foundation, whose founders were convicted of financing Hamas, and described them as “Palestinian political prisoners.”
• During an April 2024 protest, Akl led a chant calling on Abu Obaida, Hamas’ military spokesman, to bomb Tel Aviv.
• In February 2024, Instagram deactivated the accounts of Kiswani and Within Our Lifetime due to “violations of community guidelines.”
• On October 7, WOL published a statement declaring, “We must defend the Palestinian right to resist zionist settler violence and support Palestinian resistance in all its forms. By any means necessary. With no exceptions and no fine print.” 
• In November 2023, WOL published a map of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations in New York claiming they had “blood on their hands” and calling for people to “Make these locations a stop in your protests. picket and leaflet outside of them, make supporters of genocide uncomfortable.”
• In March 2022, Instagram banned WOL after it posted a collage featuring women who have engaged in terrorism against Israel, including Leila Khaled and Rasmea Odeh.
• In June 2021, Kiswani participated in a conference, “Challenging Apartheid in Palestine: Reclaiming the Narrative, Formulating A Vision,” hosted by the Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. Conference organizers and sponsors, as well as other participants, were linked to various terror groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
• Non-transparent funding: WESPAC Foundation, a Westchester, New York-based organization registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, serves as the fiscal sponsor for Within Our Lifetime. According to its website, WOL used a funding platform called Donorbox; however, the link to donate does not work.

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) – founded 2001

• USCPR claims to be a “national coalition of hundreds of groups working to advocate for Palestinian rights and a shift in US policy,” and lists JVP, AMP, and WESPAC among its “partners.” 
• Advocacy rhetoric includes accusations of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” “war crimes,” and “colonialism.”
• Exploits the US civil rights struggle by accusing Israel of maintaining a “matrix of control” over the Palestinian population and enacting “laws that discriminate against [Palestinians], much as Black Americans had been treated during the Jim Crow era.”
• Non-transparent funding: USCPR is a registered 501(c)(3) and claims to receive “the vast majority of its funding from relatively small individual donations throughout the country…;”  total reported 2021 income $1.5 million; received $355,000 (as Education for Just Peace in the Middle East) in 2018-2023  from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
• USCPR is also the “fiscal sponsor” of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC). According to the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, the BNC includes the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine – members of this group reportedly include US designated terror organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

WESPAC (Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation) – founded 1974

• WESPAC serves as fiscal sponsor for some of the NGOs responsible for antisemitism on campuses, including Students for Justice in Palestine and Within Our Lifetime. WESPAC also fulfills this role for U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Adalah-NY, and the Palestinian Youth Movement USA.
• WESPAC’s sources of income are mostly unknown. Public records reveal a handful of foundational donors, including from large donor-advised charities that further obscure the original donors.
• WESPAC uses “apartheid” and other demonizing rhetoric, campaigned for convicted PFLP terrorists, and contextualized the October 7th atrocities. 

Samidoun 

As documented in detail, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is closely linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group. A common theme of Samidoun demonstrations and rhetoric is the legitimacy and importance of “armed resistance.” For instance, at an April 30, 2023 event in Ottawa, Samidoun founder and head, Khaled Barakat, called on participants to “salute” the military wings of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP, as well as Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed terror groups.

Legal designations

• In February 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense designated Samidoun a terrorist organization and “a subsidiary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).” In November 2023, Germany banned Samidoun for violating the its Basic Law (Article 9(2)) and its Associations Act; namely, it “impairs and endangers the peaceful coexistence of Germans and foreigners,” “advocates and calls for the use of violence as a means of enforcing political interests,” and “supports associations that initiate, advocate and threaten attacks against people or property.”
• Barakat lived in Germany from 2016 to 2019, but his application for a residency permit extension was rejected, and a four-year entry ban was imposed, “owing specifically to what the German Interior Ministry called Barakat’s proclivity for violent, antisemitic rhetoric.” In March 2022, the Berlin Administrative Court (VG Berlin), rejected his appeal, finding that Barakat is at least close to the PFLP,” and that he “repeatedly participated in activities of the PFLP in Germany and/or appeared publicly under the PFLP label.”
• Samidoun was incorporated in 2021 in Canada as a not-for-profit organization.

Support for terrorism

• On October 7, 2023, Samidoun, wrote, “As the morning dawns on 7 October 2023, the resistance (euphemism for Palestinian terrorists) is rising throughout occupied Palestine, smashing the siege on Gaza with a comprehensive offensive confronting the occupier by land and air, taking control of Palestinian land, seizing occupation settlers and soldiers and launching thousands of missiles as Palestinian resistance forces fight to advance return and the liberation of Palestine.”  Samidoun then called on its allies to “express their support for the heroic Palestinian resistance, raise the flag of Palestine and the banners of resistance, and organize popular, political and media demonstrations and events to expose the Zionist crimes against our people in occupied Palestine…The heroic Palestinian resistance has opened a chapter of battles of dignity and pride at the dawn of October 7, 2023.” (emphases added)
• Describing an October 10, 2023 rally it had organized in Seattle, Samidoun published a statement that “Demonstrators showed support for the successful Flood of Al Aqsa resistance operation (the Hamas name for the October 7th massacre) and condemned the Zionist retaliatory strikes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and 75 years of oppression, ethnic cleansing and settler colonialism.” (emphasis added)

US advocacy

• According to its website, Samidoun has promoted numerous events in cities across the US since October 7th.  These include campus protests at Harvard, Columbia, Penn, and other universities.
• In a November 2023 analysis, the ADL named Samidoun as one of the key groups driving anti-Israel activity in the US.
• Samidoun founder and head Khaled Barakat and his wife Charlotte Kates spoke at the March 2024 “Resistance 101” event held at Columbia University. Barakat told Columbia student activists that “Your work is so important to the resistance in Gaza.” Kates claimed, “There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas.”
• Non-transparent funding: In the United States, the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) served as Samidoun’s fiscal sponsor; multiple online payment processors, including PayPal and Stripe, stopped working with AFGJ.

Legal Support

Legal services are provided to these NGOs and activists involved in campus antisemitism by a number of legal NGOs: 

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)

• Active in “lawfare” cases against Israeli and American officials, including a lawsuit – filed in conjunction with PFLP-linked NGOs – accusing President Biden and the US government of supporting “genocide” in Gaza. 
• In FY 2022-2023, total income was $9.9 million; total expenses were $10.9 million.

Palestine Legal

• Palestine Legal works to provide legal cover for those advancing the BDS agenda on college campuses.
• Palestine Legal does not publish financial information, reflecting a lack of transparency and accountability. Lists Tides Center, a San Francisco-based organization that funds a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs, as its fiscal sponsor.
• In 2016-2023, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, via the Tides Center, granted $425,000 to Palestine Legal.

National Lawyers Guild (NLG)

• NLG maintains a “Palestine Subcommittee” that “advocates for justice in Palestine, organizes delegations, provides legal support to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements, works to support Palestinian political prisoners, and works to implement Palestinian rights.”
• Embraces a Marxist ideology. According to its “2014 Convention Resolution,” NLG is “committed to dismantling the capitalist economic system in our nation and replacing it with a genuine political and economic democracy that holds the promise of financially achieving economic and social equality for all the people of our nation.”
• National Lawyers Guild (NLG) maintains a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization called the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (NLGF) for tax deductible donations. NLG explains that the “primary role of the Foundation has been to support the sustainability of the NLG National Office through direct grants on an annual and as-needed bases.” In addition, the Foundation “serves as fiscal sponsor for NLG chapters and committees that do not have 501(c)(3) status.”