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Anti-Israel group reportedly pleads for money as lawsuits mount

“Instead of raising money for a legal defense fund, maybe they should just stop supporting bad guys?” wrote Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center.

Gavel
Gavel. Credit: Katrin Bolovtsova/Pexels.

The Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation, or WESPAC, which funds anti-Israel organizations like National Students for Justice in Palestine and Within Our Lifetime, is in dire fiscal trouble, according to a fundraising email that The Times of Israel reported exclusively.

“WESPAC’s work has taken on enormous significance since Oct. 7, 2023, as the injustice of apartheid has turned to genocide in Gaza,” WESPAC wrote in the fundraisers, per the publication. “The well-funded forces of darkness are now waging legal warfare against us.”

“Is the end of WESPAC near?” wrote Gerald Steinberg, founder of NGO Monitor. “WESPAC is the funnel for secret funding to pro-Hamas hate groups: Students for Justice in Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Adalah-NY, the Palestinian Youth Movement, etc.”

“Incredibly proud to be one of the ‘forces of darkness’ bringing down WESPAC,” wrote Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center. (He noted that most of the cases against WESPAC, based in New York, have been brought by the center and its partners.)

“Here is a fun idea,” he added. “Instead of raising money for a legal defense fund, maybe they should just stop supporting bad guys?”

In May, the chairs of the U.S. House Oversight and House Education Committees asked the U.S. Treasury Department to provide information on 20 organizations connected to Jew-hatred on campuses. Students for Justice in Palestine and Within Our Lifetime were on that list.

“In my home state of New York, there’s a group called Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation, otherwise known as WESPAC, which has been rearing its ugly head a lot,” Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) said during a hearing in July.

WESPAC “has acted as a fiscal sponsor for many antisemitic, anti-Zionist organizations, such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Within Our Lifetime,” she added.

Alex Welz is a writer in Erie, Pa., and former National Review fellow and graduate of University of Haifa (master’s in national security) and of Mercyhurst University (bachelor’s in intelligence studies).
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