The House Judiciary and Ways and Means committees opened an investigation into the New Israel Fund on Thursday over allegations that the progressive non-profit may have illegally engaged in electioneering in opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
JNS exclusively obtained a copy of the letter from Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) to New Israel Fund describing how the group may have violated its tax-exempt status as a U.S.-based charity “by providing millions of dollars in funding to groups that engaged in political campaign activities in the 2019 Israeli elections.”
“NIF provided approximately $356,000 to Zazim, an Israeli organization that ‘operated a transportation system that brought thousands of Bedouin voters’ to the polls that were part of the opposition party to Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the committees say.
They add that New Israel Fund “also provided approximately $95,000 to Adalah, a group that ‘provided legal representation to the Joint Arab List,’ an alliance of Arab parties that centered their campaign around ousting Prime Minister Netanyahu in favor of his opponent, Benny Gantz.”
The chairmen write, citing a 2019 lawsuit, that there is evidence that New Israel Fund engaged in electioneering “directly” in Israel by helping to gather names for a petition to disqualify a candidate running for an Israeli legislative position.
“When the Israeli Supreme Court banned the candidate, ‘NIF called it a victory for democracy,’” they state.
The New Israel Fund describes itself as “the leading organization advancing and defending democracy and equality for all Israelis” and says that it has donated more than $300 million to “progressive civil society organizations” since its founding in 1979.
The main photo on its website features Ayman Odeh, a member of Knesset who led the Hadash-Ta’al party in the most recent Israeli elections.
Under U.S. law, 501(c)(3) charities, like the New Israel Fund, are “absolutely prohibited” from directly or indirectly engaging in any political campaign for or against a candidate for elected office, per the IRS.
Charities are permitted to conduct voter education initiatives and promote nonpartisan get-out-the-vote efforts, but are barred from doing so in a manner that is biased towards any party or candidate.
Jordan told JNS that the New Israel Fund appeared to have engaged in “obvious electioneering” to oppose Netanyahu.
“The law is the law. You’re not supposed to be using this for electioneering activity,” he said. “It looks like they were.”
Jordan described the investigation of NIF as the “next step” in his committee’s wider investigation of an often-overlapping network of left-wing, U.S.-based nonprofit groups that provided funding to Israeli opposition movements, including some groups that directly or indirectly received money from the Biden administration.
“I think it’s driven to alter outcomes and to undermine the guy who was elected as prime minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Jordan said, of the charities.
Conservatives in Israel and the United States have long accused the New Israel Fund of backing left-wing causes in Israeli elections in possible violation of U.S. and Israeli law.
Thursday’s letter from the House committees cites a 2019 lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that “for at least the past 10 years and continuing through the present, NIF has consistently electioneered in Israel by giving grants to organizations which oppose and support candidates for public office in Israel.”
The New Israel Fund reached a settlement in that lawsuit in 2021, in which it did not admit wrongdoing or pay any damages.
Smith, the Ways and Means Committee chairman, told JNS that “American taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize nonprofits that break our laws.”
“Reports that the New Israel Fund provided funding to groups engaged in political campaign activity—while certifying to the IRS that it did not—demonstrate the need for stronger enforcement to ensure that our tax code cannot be exploited,” he said. “Tax-exempt status is a privilege, not a right, but far too many nonprofits have been caught abusing that privilege by engaging in prohibited conduct, including political campaign activity.”
JNS sought comment from the New Israel Fund about the House investigation. The group has previously denied that it engages in election activity.
As part of the investigation, the two committees asked the New Israel Fund to share information about funding it provided to 10 Israeli nonprofits that may have run afoul of U.S. laws on election activities, including Breaking the Silence, Standing Together and Darkenu.
Jordan told JNS that he expects the probe to uncover more.
“Whenever we do these investigations, typically the only thing we get wrong at the front end is that it’s always worse than we thought,” he said. “My gut says that will probably be the case again.”
