House Oversight Committee demands group behind anti-Israel student encampments reveal funding for ‘pro-Hamas propaganda’
WASHINGTON – House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer demanded Tuesday that the leader of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) turn over any information related to “the funding of pro-Hamas propaganda and illegal encampments” at universities across the country.
In his letter, Comer (R-Ky.) asked AMP Executive Director Osama Abuirshaid to provide all “documents and communications” with and related to an associated organization, National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which Comer said “claims to ‘support over 200 Palestine solidarity organizations on college campuses across'” North America.
Comer said the information was needed to “inform legislation to ensure that federal agencies are able to adequately prevent money laundering and terrorist financing” and to determine if Congress should update “statutory reporting requirements on financial institutions related to money laundering and terrorist financing.”
On May 29, the panel sent an initial letter requesting AMP turn over documents related to the funding of and communications with the student group, as well as anything regarding Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel, as well as “all documents and communications, regardless of topic, created on or sent between Oct. 6 (and) Oct. 8, 2023.”
“The committee is particularly concerned that organizations promulgating pro-Hamas propaganda and engaging in illegal activities at institutions of higher education might be receiving funding or other support from foreign or domestic sources which support the aims of Hamas or other foreign terrorist organizations,” Comer wrote.
That letter noted that SJP-supported protests have included the harassment of Jewish students, demands that universities divest from Israel and suggestions that the Jewish state does not have a right to exist and should be eliminated.
AMP rejected that letter on June 11, according to Comer, with its legal counsel arguing the organization “is neither the ‘parent’ nor ‘founder’ of National SJP, nor does it bear any corporate relationship to that entity.”
But Comer in his Tuesday letter noted that “substantial evidence indicates a direct relationship” between the two groups – and surmised the rejection may actually have to do with pending legal action in which families of the victims of the Oct. 7 attack allege both the AMP and SJP are propaganda fronts recruiting “uninformed, misguided and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas.”
“Perhaps you believe this is a necessary course of action because such an admission could negatively impact AMP’s legal strategy in responding to a lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Virginia,” he wrote in the most recent letter.
“To avoid any further delay and alleviate any confusion on your part, please be advised that I am writing to you directly as the executive director of AMP and request yours and AMP’s prompt and voluntary compliance,” he added.
While the letters so far have asked for voluntary compliance, Comer in his Tuesday letter threatened to use his committee’s subpoena power to force AMP to produce the documents and communications.
“… If AMP continues to fail to produce the requested documents, I will consider other measures, including the use of compulsory process, to gain compliance and obtain this material,” he wrote.
AMP did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
