An Israeli-born actor asked the FBI on Wednesday to investigate funding that pro-Palestinian organizations may have received from terrorist groups.
Noa Tishby, who served last year as Israel’s first special envoy to combat antisemitism, told the House Ways and Means Committee that federal and state law enforcement should “immediately” look at sources of support for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and American Muslims to Palestine (AMP).
“With the amount of evidence linking SJP and AMP members to the support and financing of terrorist groups, including Hamas, these organizations and networks should be investigated by the national police and the FBI,” Tishby told members of the committee led by Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo .).
“Terrorists… are now holding more than 200 Israelis, Americans and other nationals hostage. The time for a criminal investigation is now,” he added.
Israeli-born actress Noa Tishby is calling on the FBI to investigate funding a US college student group may receive from terrorists. Alon Shafransky
Panelists agreed during the hearing to send a bipartisan letter to the FBI and IRS asking for an investigation into the funding — a move Tishby later told The Post in an interview was “long overdue.”
“The explosion of anti-Jewish hatred that’s happening in America right now didn’t come out of nowhere,” Tishby said. “We know this is festering and brewing beneath the surface.”
“Every single one of us on this panel knows exactly what’s going on — on campus — but it’s been hidden from the majority of the American people,” he added.
Tishby also said that university campuses need to reckon not only with antisemitic rhetoric but also denial of the horrors committed by Hamas.
“The Jewish community needs to prove to the world … that the Holocaust happened,” he continued. “There was a massacre of Jews on Oct. 7. And since then, we’ve heard calls for more massacres and we’ve tried to convince people that the massacres actually happened — when the perpetrators of the massacres have recorded their own videos. “
That rejection can be seen clearly, Tishby said, in the many videos that have appeared online of college students who were caught tearing down posters of Israeli hostages taken by terrorist groups back to the Gaza Strip.
“They have been brainwashed into thinking that Israel is actually committing genocide, so they are proud and happy about the ‘good’ they are doing,” he said. “It’s just shocking and heartbreaking.”
AMP, founded by University of California at Berkeley professor Hatem Al Bazian, now has employees and fundraisers who formerly worked for the defunct organization that gave more than $12 million to Hamas, according to former Treasury Department terrorism finance analyst Jonathan Schanzer.
Now a senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Schanzer said that while working at the Treasury, he and his colleagues had “disrupted several Hamas charities” operating in the US.
“The case against this group, which provides financial and material support to Hamas is now public,” he added. “More than half a dozen individuals who previously worked for the Hamas charity now operate Muslims for America in Palestine.”
“There is enough evidence linking SJP and AMP members to the support and funding of terrorist groups including Hamas, that both the state police and the FBI should investigate them immediately,” Tishby said.AP
Schanzer had previously testified before the House Homeland Security Committee in 2016 that the organizations — the Holy Land Foundation, KindHearts, and the Islamic Society for Palestine — had sanctions and prison terms imposed on their leaders after terror financing was revealed.
At the same time, he added, AMP has lobbied “Squad” Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), as well as Democratic Representatives Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, Bill Pascrell of New Jersey and Andre Carson of Indiana.
SJP further “receives funding and guidance and support from AMP,” according to Schanzer.
Pascrell, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, dismissed Schanzer’s assessment of AMP’s influence as “total garbage,” but did not direct any questions to the witness.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has also expressed SJP’s pro-Hamas message and promoted violence against Israelis in the wake of the brutal October 7 surprise attack that killed more than 1,200 people — including 33 Americans.
“We can no longer give a free pass to supporters of organizations committed to global Jihad that are currently holding more than 200 Israelis, Americans and dozens of other citizens hostage in Gaza,” said Tishby.AP
SJP issued a memo hours after the attack justifying the killing as a “fight” and urging its university chapter to express “unity.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered his state’s university system last month to ban radical pro-Palestinian student groups from campus because of their “dangerous support of terrorist groups.”
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares launched an investigation into AMP on October 31, saying the organization was unregistered and “may have used funds raised for purposes impermissible under state law, including benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations.”
Tishby, who is the author of the 2021 best-selling book “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth,” denounced SJP in his speech as a “hate group.” Chris Kleponis/CNP/ABACA/Shutterstock
Other SJP chapters have either had their official status revoked for holding unauthorized assemblies — and for displaying antisemitic messages — such as at Columbia University and George Washington University, respectively.
Students at Cornell University have also called for their administration to take disciplinary action against a professor who called the terrorist attack “joyous” at an SJP rally.
Cornell University student Talia Dror also testified before a House committee about a professor on her campus who called the terrorist attack “exhilarating” during an SJP rally and Jewish students received death threats.
“Jewish students on campus received threats saying, ‘If I see another Jew on campus, I will stab you and cut your throat. If I see another pig, Jewish woman, I will drag you, rape you and throw you off the cliff,’” Dror testified.
The professor, Russell Rickford, later apologized and took a leave of absence. Patrick Dai, a junior at Cornell, was arrested and charged on October 31 with making death threats.
The Anti-Defamation League has also noted SJP’s pro-Hamas messages and promoting violence against Israel following a brutal Hamas surprise attack on October 7 that killed 1,200.REUTERS
Tishby, who is the best-selling author of the 2021 book “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth,” denounced SJP in his statement as a “hate group” that trains American college students — your children — to hate Israel, hate America and hate Jews.”
Tishby, who is the best-selling author of the 2021 book “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth,” denounced SJP in his statement as a “hate group” that “maintains American college students … to hate Israel, hate Jews and hate America.”
“SJP hijacks any campus it operates on, and they use that word on purpose, after all, this is the organization that put Palestinian hijacker Leila Khaled on its T-shirt,” he said.
“Every college in the country should ban SJP permanently,” he added. “We will not pay the Mafia to teach business on campus. We should not be paying terrorist supporters to teach political activism to our children. We should treat SJP the same as we treat KKK.”
“Every college in the country should ban SJP and not let them come back. We will not fund a KKK chapter at our college,” Tishby said. “And if the university fails to remove SJP from campus, if they continue to protect and fund the leaders of antisemitic groups, then this committee should withdraw funding for them.”
“We will not allow the Mafia to teach business on campus. We should not allow terrorist supporters to teach political activism to our children,” he added.
Tishby went on to suggest that Congress must “stop rolling out the red carpet” for friends of “terrorist-linked groups” – and said that it was “appalling that there are members of Congress who have received donations” from AMP.
Tishby also agreed with Schanzer that members of Congress “should not be funded from the same pot as murderous terrorists” — and blasted Tlaib following his condemnation by the House for repeating the phrase “from river to sea” on his social media account, which is a call to eliminate Israel.
“I don’t understand how Representative Rashida Tlaib can say that this is a call for freedom,” Tishby said. “I don’t understand how you can understand the line, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ in any other way than to purge the Jews from this land.”
“They say resistance in every possible way, even after October 7,” he added. “So that means resistance by beheading babies and raping women and girls – because that’s what they say.”
Tishby has teamed up with Israeli “Wonder Woman” actress Gal Gadot to bring attention to the horrors committed by Hamas, including by showing footage of the atrocities at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles last week.
“I’m not saying that Israel doesn’t have political issues every country,” Tishby also told The Post, noting that he was fired from his role as special envoy for not agreeing with the judicial overhaul put forward by the Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“I know it might affect my position. And it happened. And I’m okay with that because Israel is a democracy,” Tishby said. “I may not agree with the Israeli government on every policy, but I certainly don’t want Israel to cease to exist.”
“I am the perfect embodiment of how you can criticize some of the laws that the Israeli government proposes while still being a staunch Zionist,” he added, “and understanding the safety and security of the state of Israel is essential for safety and security. for all of Western civilization.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
