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The Anti-Israel Money Trail
(Wall Street Journal) Bret Stephens - Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, has more than 100 chapters nationwide and has been canny in pairing itself with left-wing or minority student organizations to sponsor anti-Israel events, heckle pro-Israel speakers, and agitate for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions on campus. SJP's self-declared goal is to end Israel's "occupation and colonization of all Arab lands" while "promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes." That's another way of saying destroying the Jewish state. Last week Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official and terrorism-finance expert now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that a prominent backer of SJP and like-minded groups is American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Many of AMP's leading members were previously active in some dubious former charities. The most prominent, the Holy Land Foundation For Relief and Development, was shut down in 2001 by the federal government for providing millions in funds to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Five Holy Land officials eventually were convicted to prison terms and two others fled the country. Today, AMP's leaders include at least three Holy Land alumni. Then there is the Islamic Association for Palestine, which in 2004 was found civilly liable in federal court for supporting Hamas and was disbanded in 2010. At least four former IAP senior leaders are currently active in AMP, including its national policy director, Osama Abu Irshaid.