Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sent a letter on Aug. 22 to Scott Bessent, acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, asking him to investigate the funding of the Palestinian Youth Movement to see if its 501(c)(3) nonprofit, tax-exempt status should be revoked.
The senator described the Palestinian Youth Movement as “a youth activist organization known for its virulently antisemitic stances, public statements in support of terrorist groups, and activities and support for anti-Israel protests in America.”
He also noted that it receives funding from another 501(c)(3) organization, Honor the Earth.
As evidence, Cotton pointed to PYM organizing events with Samidoun, which the U.S. designated as a terror entity last year for being an alleged for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group.
He added that the Israeli government has claimed that PYM has “close ties” with PFLP affiliates and Students for Justice in Palestine, which the Israeli government said is “linked to Hamas.”
Cotton further pointed to the PYM signing onto a joint statement describing “Al-Aqsa Flood”—the name Hamas uses to describe its massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023—as being “an unprecedented liberation struggle” in response to “accelerating attacks on Palestinians in Jerusalem and in the West Bank.”
PYM is also being listed as a defendant in a lawsuit over anti-Israel protesters blocking traffic in Washington, D.C., in February 2024, as examples of the organization’s “public support for terrorism,” he noted.
“An organization that supports terrorism, breaks U.S. law and sows antisemitic discord should not receive any benefits from the American tax system,” Cotton stated.
