A Virginia court has ordered American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) to turn over records as part of a state investigation into the organization, which is suspected of being affiliated with terrorist groups.
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that he was launching an investigation into the organization in October 2023 to investigate allegations that AMP “may have used funds raised for impermissible purposes under state law, including benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations.”
Under Virginia state law, every organization must file an initial registration statement with the state agriculture and consumer services commissioner. The statement must include this language: “No funds have been or will knowingly be used, directly or indirectly, to benefit or provide support, in cash or in kind, to terrorists, terrorist organizations, terrorist activities, or the family members of any terrorist.”
The law also says, “No person shall be registered by the commonwealth or by any locality to solicit funds that are intended to benefit or support terrorists, terrorist organizations or terrorist activities.”
The court has ordered AMP to turn over donor records and financial transaction data as the state continues its investigation, according to Washington Free Beacon reporter Adam Kredo.
American Muslims for Palestine, founded in 2006, claims to be an organization “dedicated to advancing the movement for justice in Palestine by educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage and through grassroots mobilization and advocacy.”
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The organization is facing a lawsuit filed by survivors of Hamas’ October 7 surprise attack on Israel in which the terrorists murdered over 1,000 Israelis. The plaintiffs have accused the group of operating “as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas.”
The lawsuit alleges that AMP uses propaganda “to intimidate, convince, and recruit uninformed, misguided, and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas on campus and beyond.” AMP later founded a group called Students for Justice in Palestine, (NSJP) which is behind the widespread unrest on college campuses in which pro-Hamas protesters called for educational institutions to divest from Israel.
The plaintiffs allege that the organization employs language in their materials that is similar to Hamas’ rhetoric. In one of NSJP’s “toolkits,” it praised the October 7 assault, according to the lawsuit.
In the Oct. 7, 2023, attack Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 civilians and took more than 200 people hostage. Some remain in captivity. The next day, the two organizations named in the suit distributed a “NSJP Toolkit” with coordinated “resistance” materials. It says that their organizations are part of a “unity intifada.”
“Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the façade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that total return and liberation to Palestine is near,” the toolkit reads. “As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization. National liberation is near— glory to our resistance, to our martyrs, and to our steadfast people.”
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Even more startling and concerning is the allegation in the lawsuit that AMP “was founded from the ashes of disbanded organizations created by senior Hamas officials after those organizations and related individuals were found criminally and civilly liable for providing material support to Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups.”
The plaintiffs are seeking damages because they have been injured by AMP’s “intentional systematic, and substantial assistance to Hamas’ acts of international terrorism.”