American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is an anti-Israel organization with strong ties to pro-Hamas individuals and organizations. While AMP refers to itself as an educational organization focused primarily on raising awareness for Palestinian causes,2
Multiple individuals associated with AMP have ties to organizations that have been implicated by the federal government for offering support to terrorist entities such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. 3 At a 2014 AMP conference, a lecturer invited attendees to “navigate the fine line between legal activism and material support for terrorism.” 13 In 2016, the organization opened an office in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC to engage in congressional advocacy. 14
Between 2012 and 2016, Americans for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine’s tax-exempt arm, took in $3.6 million in donations. It claims to be supported entirely by donations from the public and does not disclose donations by any other organization. 15 In 2016, AJP spent more than $950,000 on its activities, which included an annual pro-Palestinian conference in the U.S., print materials, organizing, and a real estate purchase of $269,000. 15
Legal Issues
In 2017, a lawsuit against AMP claimed that the organization was responsible for providing material support to extremists in the Palestinian territories. The claimants, a Jewish couple whose son had been killed by Hamas militants during a visit to Israel, had successfully sued a number of Muslim organizations, including the Chicago, Illinois-based Islamic Association for Palestine, in the early 2000s for millions of dollars. As a result, IAP had shut down, but the new lawsuit accused AMP of being the same organization under a different name, with largely identical leadership and objectives. In particular, the claimants cited online forum posts by AMP members who allegedly discussed the “need to distance ourselves from any well-known IAP figures” during what they called “the transition period.” 16
In October 2023, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’s (R) office opened an investigation into AMP on similar premises, citing allegations that the group had also violated Virginia-specific laws on financing terrorism. AMP has pushed back against this claim, calling it a “defamatory and dangerous smear.” 17 The lawsuit further alleges that families of victims of the October 7 attacks are still suffering harm because, “AMP and NSJP knowingly provide continuous, systematic, and substantial assistance to Hamas and its affiliates’ acts of international terrorism. AMP and NSJP are thus liable to Plaintiffs for the damages they incurred because AMP and NSJP aid and abet Hamas’s terrorism.”17
In July 2024, a judge in Richmond, Virginia ruled that AMP must hand over financial documents and doner information requested by the state Attorney General Jason Miyares as part of an investigation into the organization’s sources of funding. The attorney general’s initial investigation started shortly after the Hamas terror attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023 by looking into the group fundraising, “without proper registration and for potentially violating Virginia’s charitable solicitation laws, including benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations.” 18 AMP attorney Christina Jump reacted to the ruling by claiming that the donor information requested by the investigation is, “protected by the First Amendment.” 18
Key People
Multiple officers of AMP and its tax-exempt arm, AJP, have ties to organizations that have been found to support Hamas and other terrorist groups. 15
Ayah Ziyadeh
Ayah Ziyadeh is the director of advocacy for AMP and for AJP Action, the political action arm of the Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation. She was previously a field organizer and campaign manager for Colorado state Representative Mike Weissman (D-Aurora), an aide in the state legislature, and an intern “working closely with the American Civil Liberties Union.” She was also the vice chair and operations director of the Arapahoe County, Colorado Young Democrats organization. Zihadeh received a master of arts degree in international human rights from the University of Denver, and also studied international affairs at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. 24 The other speaker was Mohammed el-Mezain, who was sentenced to prison for his role in the Holy Land Foundation, which provided financial support to Hamas. 36
Osama Abuirshaid
Osama Abuirshaid is the executive director of AMP. He is also a member of the organization’s board. 38 to the founder of a fraudulent charity known as Help the Needy, which illegally sent funds to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions and also sent funds to charities designated by the U.S. Treasury for funding al-Qaeda. 40 MEMRI was founded in 1998 by Yigal Carmon, a former Israeli intelligence officer and counterterrorism adviser to two former Israeli prime ministers. 2
American Muslims for Palestine also hosts an annual conference on Palestinian activism in America, which regularly attracts Islamic fundamentalist speakers and approximately 2,000 attendees. 2
AMP also has a record of inflammatory anti-Israel activity in the U.S., including targeted at neighborhoods with large Jewish populations.
In March 2013, on the first day of Passover, AMP unveiled a billboard campaign in suburban New York accusing Israel of “apartheid.” The ad features the silhouette of an Israeli soldier aiming a gun at a Palestinian child. 3 In 2018, the Israeli government officially barred members of American Muslims for Palestine from entering Israel due to its support of the BDS movement. 48 During the event, a board member of AMP, identified as a Milwaukee attorney, claimed that American policymakers were attempting to, “criminalize the support of the Palestinian people,” 48 while the AMP’s then-vice president Munjed Ahmad, further claimed that the United States government was preventing charitable assistance to designated foreign terrorist organizations on “the behest of the Israeli government, its lobby.” 48 Ahmad continued by claiming, “What’s very sad to me when we talk about terrorist organizations is that the state of Israel is not considered a terrorist organization. Uh, with our government, but it truly is the largest terrorist of all. Truly.” 48
Organizing with IfNotNow (INN)
Starting in 2017, AMP began to work with far-left organization IfNotNow in organizing anti-Israel protests and demonstrations. AMP and INN disrupted the 2017 Senate confirmation of David Friedman as the United States ambassador to Israel. 51
AMP has also attacked the administration for allegedly downplaying the Palestinian civilian death toll from Israeli airstrikes and shelling. In a November 2023 statement, AMP advocacy director Ayah Ziyadeh called President Biden’s apparent dismissal of the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty statistics “dehumanizing.” Speaking to the Turkish government’s Anadolu Agency, Ziyadeh also accused Israel of “genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and collective punishment.” 52
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), made statements expressing apparent sympathy with the Hamas attacks to the AMP annual convention. Awad stated, “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in. And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense.” 54
On May 6, 2024, AMP was one of roughly 100 organizations that signed a letter sent to U.S Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) seeking to block the passage of H.R.6408 /S.4136. that would strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofits identified as supporting terrorist organizations. The signatories claim that such a bill is motivated by “anti-Palestinian bias” and will “undermine our nation’s democratic freedoms and principles” if passed. 56
In November 2024, the local chapter of AMP announced their participation in a pro-Palestinian protest in downtown Chicago with other local chapters of anti-Israeli groups to “reject capitalist ‘holidays.” 57 Taking place on November 29, it was coordinated with other pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli protests planned to take place around the world during the Thanksgiving weekend. It was planned by the “”Global Escalation” coalition” demanding protesters and activists to “[d]isrupt any and all entities that allow or enable genocide. Disrupt the finances fuelling or profiting from genocide.” 57 The coalition also claimed the protests on November 29 would coincide with the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” 57
Financials
American Muslims for Palestine receives funding through the Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation, the entity set up as its fiscal sponsor. 0){
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