Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) posted a photo on Tuesday with rescued hostage Andrey Kozlov, honoring his bravery and calling for an end to tax exemptions for organizations with ties to terrorist operations.
“For eight months, Andrey was held hostage in Gaza. He was regularly threatened with death and kept in chains,” the congressman wrote. “Shockingly, Andrey was held hostage by a terrorist who doubled as a journalist–and worked for the Palestine Chronicle, a tax-exempt organization.”
“It’s vital that we make sure that no organization with terror ties maintains its tax-exempt status,” he added.
Kozlov, 27, was one of four hostages rescued by the Israeli Defense Forces during an operation in June of 2024, along with Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21 and Shlomi Ziv, 40. All four were kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im during the Oct. 7 massacre.
Sherman, who is Jewish, is one of eight bipartisan members of Congress who introduced legislation on Wednesday to sanction the Popular Resistance Committees—the third largest terrorist group operating in Gaza after Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad—as a specially designated global terrorist organization.
“Every day that we fail to sanction the terrorist Popular Resistance Committees—which have murdered Americans and Israelis for decades, and participated in the barbaric Oct. 7 massacre including by taking hostages—is another day that we fail to secure justice for their victims,” Sherman wrote. “I’m proud to reintroduce my legislation to finally hold these monsters accountable for the terror they have wreaked on innocents in the region.”
