A major left-wing charity is unable to accept credit card donations for itself or the 140 groups that it fiscally sponsors following several Washington Examiner reports on how the nonprofit group is linked to Palestinian terrorism.
Lawyers and charity experts have continued to raise concerns over how the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice has fundraised for Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a French partner of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terror group. On the heels of a pro-Israel group calling for banks to cut ties with AFGJ, the charity is now revealing that it cannot process credit card donations.
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In a roughly 1,000-word press release on Tuesday, AFGJ slammed the Washington Examiner as an allegedly "far-right rag" that "succeeded" in an "attack on AFGJ."
"As of this writing AfGJ cannot accept credit donations — and neither can the 140 organizations that rely on us to provide them with fiscal sponsorship, which includes handling their accounting and providing them with nonprofit status," the press release said. "From people bringing clean water to the Apache reservation, to programs that mentor LGBTQiA kids and teach them to use art as a means of self-expression, to bail funds that shell out money to carceral systems that lock up people for demonstrating to demand an end to police murders of BIPOC people, our fiscally sponsored projects are laboring to create a more sane, sustainable and just world."
The group is instructing donors to mail checks to its Tucson, Arizona, address.
"We’re building a phone tree that can be used to mobilize supporters when attacks occur," the press release continued. "We are looking for supporters such as you to join that phone tree. Please send us your name and phone number, and let us know that you’d like to participate."
AFGJ has fundraised through a company called Salsa Labs. However, a link to that website now informs people that AFGJ is "unable to accept online donations at this time."
"For years, we documented Western money going to NGOs affiliated with terror, incitement, and hatred," Itai Reuveni, a spokesman for the Israeli watchdog group NGO Monitor, told the Washington Examiner. "It seems that Alliance for Global Justice didn't do a proper due diligence check before spreading the money outside of the U.S."
The major development comes after the Washington Examiner reported on Jan. 16 how AFGJ fundraised for CPV, which is part of an anti-Israel coalition called the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Israel's government has said that Samidoun "plays a leading role" in recruiting activists for the PFLP, which has been responsible for bombings and airplane hijackings.
Payment processors, such as PayPal and Discover, have previously blocked Samidoun from using their services due to its terrorism ties. Several lawyers say that AFGJ could have been providing "material support" to terrorism through its CPV fundraiser. Zachor Legal Institute, a legal think tank fighting antisemitism, filed an IRS complaint on Jan. 17 that demanded the agency investigate AFGJ.
"We are happy to see that the platform provider for Alliance for Global Justice’s terror funding efforts has finally complied with its legal obligations to terminate unlawful uses of its platform," Marc Greendorfer, an attorney who runs Zachor, told the Washington Examiner.
"As we have also asked the IRS and the Office of Foreign Assets Control to take action against this organization’s persistent attempts to fund terror-backed organizations, we hope that there will also soon be federal action to put an end to the unlawful terror financing being enabled by Alliance for Global Justice," he added.
Fiscal sponsorship means that a nonprofit group provides things such as donation processing, payroll, health insurance handling, and legal oversight for other entities. Due to the most recent development, it is unclear how AFGJ will process donations for foreign groups that it sponsors.
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AFGJ sponsors several left-leaning initiatives, including Black Lives Matter chapters, cashless bail activist groups, and other anti-Israel entities. Click here for a list of the organizations that it sponsors.
A spokeswoman for the IRS told the Washington Examiner that federal disclosure laws prohibit the agency from commenting on the group's relationship with it. Salsa Labs has been reached out to for comment.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.