OpinionAntisemitism

How progressive charity platforms help foment anti-Israel terror

The continued economic behavior of left-leaning technology platforms, such as ActBlue and SalsaLabs, underscores the general malaise of Democrats in confronting anti-Semitism and combating Israel-hatred.

U.S. $100 bills. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
U.S. $100 bills. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Irit Tratt
Irit Tratt
Irit Tratt is a pro-Israel advocate residing in New York.

In a $2 billion contract sealed last summer, the global investment firm Apax Partners announced that it would be acquiring EveryAction, a fundraising portal that currently hosts more than 18,000 organizations and serves as parent to Ngp Van, which today remains the “leading technology provider to Democratic and progressive campaigns” in America.

Also included within the landmark deal was SalsaLabs, Inc., an American fundraising company that joined the EveryAction “family” several months preceding the Apax acquisition. While providing donor management to a host of institutions ranging from Westchester Children’s Association to Wilderness Watch, SalsaLabs is also fueling the success of controversial groups like The Alliance for Global Justice (“AFGJ”).

In 1998, the Tucson, Arizona-based AFGJ was incorporated under the Nicaragua Network and today mobilizes on behalf of anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist objectives. With contributors including Amnesty International and the anti-Semitic Tides Foundation, the AFGJ had grown its revenue from $3.3 million in 2016  to approximately $7 million in 2020.

The AFGJ supports convicted terrorists through fundraising for Samidoun, also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Today, Samidoun is involved in a campaign to free Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Khaled Barakat, who in 2020 was barred from entering Germany for four years over his ties to Palestinian terrorism.

Since 1997, the PFLP has been recognized by the United States as a foreign terrorist group and is listed by the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets and Control (OFAC) as a Specially Designated National and Blocked Person (“SDN”). The organizations and individuals listed on OFAC’s site have their assets blocked and are prohibited from conducting business with U.S. citizens.

As a terrorist organization, the PFLP is on the SDN roster and is barred from entering into financial transactions with U.S. entities. SalsaLabs’s use of its platform to represent an establishment with documented links to a terrorist group potentially places the company in non-compliance with U.S. anti-terror laws.

Coincidentally, the association between Samidoun and Salsa Labs follows a disturbing trend among progressive charity navigators of abetting anti-Israel groups with attachments to foreign terrorists. Last year, an article published by The Washington Free Beacon revealed how ActBlue, the online fundraising portal servicing Democrat lawmakers and liberal organizations, is working with the Palestinian  Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

A 2019 report released by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) emphasizes the partnership between the PACBI and terror groups related to the BNC, otherwise known as the BDS National Committee. While cloaked as academic and cultural promoters of the Palestinian cause, the PACBI shares a website and a close strategic relationship with the BNC, whose network consists of terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Both Hamas and PIJ are featured on the U.S. government’s SDN log. Simply put, the PACBI and the BNC work hand in fist propagating terrorist activities related to the destruction of Israel.

Zachor Legal Institute, a think tank and Israel advocacy organization, authored a letter  in February 2021 requesting that ActBlue investigate its account with the PACBI. The communication references the PACBI’s membership in a coalition of organizations deemed foreign terrorists by the United States government.

Facilitating payments to said institutions renders ActBlue complicit in sanctioning unsavory behavior while possibly breaching U.S. anti-terrorism rules. To date, ActBlue continues to allow visitors to its site an opportunity to make a PACBI donation despite deactivating the accounts of other controversial groups. Last month, The Washington Examiner reported that ActBlue ceased accepting online donations to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization, due to issues surrounding BLM’s financial compliance.

Almost a year following Zachor’s correspondence alerting ActBlue of its association with PACBI, Marc Greendorfer, president and founder of Zachor, sent a letter to SalsaLabs asking that the technology company investigate its current relationship with the AFGJ. The letter asserts how the AFGJ provides financial assistance to Samidoun and cites its campaign on behalf of convicted terrorists and PFLP official Khaled Barakat.

Incidentally, Samidoun’s support for international terrorists extends beyond its bolstering of Barakat. Samidoun has also advocated for the release of PFLP member Khalida Jarrar.

Jarrar, a senior member of the PFLP who was recently released from an Israeli prison as part of a plea deal, helped orchestrate a 2019 Israeli terror attack that took the life of 17-year-old Rina Schnerb. Given its receipt of new information, SalsaLab maintains that it is evaluating its account with the AFGJ. It bears mentioning that in an effort to prevent the flow of money to terrorists, Paypal agreed to shut down its financial services to Samidoun in 2019.

The continued economic behavior of left-leaning technology platforms, such as ActBlue and SalsaLabs, underscores the general malaise of Democrats in confronting anti-Semitism and combating Israel-hatred. Acting as the financial engine for groups including the PACBI and Samidoun, liberal charity navigators are also lending potency to dangerous terrorist organizations, while potentially violating U.S. federal anti-terror regulations.

Irit Tratt is a writer who resides in New York. Her work has been published in The American Spectator, The Jerusalem Post, The Algemeiner and Israel Hayom.

The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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