The Lawfare Project has asked the U.S. Department of the Treasury to investigate whether the Philadelphia chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America violated federal terrorism sanctions by hosting a program with Samidoun, a group designated by the United States for raising funds for a Palestinian terrorist organization.
The referral concerns an event the DSA chapter’s International Solidarity Working Group held with Samidoun on March 26, 2025, Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told JNS.
The Treasury Department sanctioned Samidoun in October 2024 and identified it as an international fundraising front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“Federal law bars Americans from providing services to a designated entity or receiving services from one,” Filitti told JNS. “That program took place 162 days after the designation.”
Lawfare Project asked the Treasury “to investigate, to end any dealing with Samidoun, to penalize violations and refer willful ones for prosecution,” he said.
According to Filitti, the working group is connected to a recent anti-Israel ride targeting Jewish-owned restaurants in Philadelphia on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht. The ride drew condemnation from elected officials and Jewish organizations.
“The same working group runs No Appetite for Apartheid, the Philly DSA campaign reported by the media as a collaborator on the ride,” he told JNS.
In response to criticism of the protest, the DSA chapter accused Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and other lawmakers of “invoking comparisons of Kristallnacht that trivialize trauma and suppress political speech.”
The chapter said that it “did not and does not endorse the bike ride.”
Filitti told JNS that the sanctions referral “concerns federal terrorism sanctions, not tax status.”
“Philly DSA is a 501(c)(4), and an organization that engages in illegal activity doesn’t qualify as one,” he told JNS.
Depending “in large part” on what the Treasury uncovers, “a referral to the IRS to revoke Philly DSA’s tax-exempt status would be a next step,” he said.
