A left-wing charity that became unable to accept credit card donations following Washington Examiner reports on its Palestinian terrorism ties is now fundraising through a major payment processor, records show.
Alliance for Global Justice in February revealed that the Arizona nonprofit group and the 140 entities it fiscally sponsors could not process credit card transactions, which were handled by a company called Salsa Labs. Now, the Irish-American financial services company Stripe is processing cards on behalf of the alliance, as part of a move raising concerns among legal experts and Congress.
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“We will take action, again, to inform relevant parties and government agencies that AFGJ has apparently resumed funding known terror groups in contravention of terms of service, IRS rules, and federal laws,” Marc Greendorfer, an attorney who heads Zachor Legal Institute, a think tank fighting antisemitism that filed an IRS complaint in January against the alliance over its terrorism ties, told the Washington Examiner.
Greendorfer added that the alliance and any payment processors aware of its “terror fundraising” could be held civilly liable for “aiding and abetting foreign terror groups” by victims of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terror group. The alliance has fundraised for Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an Israeli-designated terror coalition sponsored by the alliance, according to the Arizona charity’s website.
These ties have resulted in Zachor and the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog, calling on the federal government to investigate the alliance for possibly supporting groups terrorizing the Jewish state.
A self-identified “progressive” and “anti-capitalist” charity, the alliance is an offshoot of the Nicaragua Network, an entity that supported Nicaragua’s socialist Sandinista regime, the Washington Examiner reported.
The Alliance for Global Justice, which reported over $10.6 million during its fiscal year ending in 2022 after a staggering $56 million haul the year prior, was unable to take credit card donations because a Salsa Labs contractor called CardConnect took action in February, according to the Intercept. Camille Landry, the charity’s outreach coordinator, told the outlet that the sequence of events “absolutely affected our ability to fundraise and support sponsor organizations — many of which need this money to literally pay rent and keep their lights on.”
In announcing the fundraising dilemma, the alliance published a February press release blasting the Washington Examiner for an “attack on AFGJ.”
The latest relationship between the charity and Stripe comes after the payment processor faced criticism in 2022 from the Israeli watchdog group NGO Monitor over Collectif Palestine Vaincra using its software.
“Threats of violence against the safety and security of Israel, our most important ally in the Middle East, have no place in America and must be universally condemned,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) told the Washington Examiner. “Stripe should be completely transparent on why it is choosing to do business with Alliance for Global Justice or any group with suspected ties to Palestinian terror organizations threatening genocide against the Jewish people.”
Stripe did not reply to a request for comment.
The company, which according to its annual letter processed $817 billion in transactions in 2022, says in its terms and conditions it doesn’t work with any entity that “engages in, encourages, promotes, or celebrates unlawful violence or physical harm to persons or property” or “any group based on race, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other immutable characteristic.”
Stripe’s move to work with the Alliance also comes a few years after the likes of PayPal, Plaid, and Discover blocked Samidoun from using their services. CPV does not currently list a donation option on its website. The French group coordinated with the Popular Front in 2021 to fundraise for a child “indoctrination” in the Gaza Strip, according to NGO Monitor.
“American companies should not be providing services to any entity that actively fundraises for Palestinian terrorist organizations or promotes anti-Semitism,” House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told the Washington Examiner.
The alliance has pocketed donations in recent years from influential liberal nonprofit groups, including over $7.9 million combined in 2020 from the Tides Center and Tides Foundation, tax forms show. The center and foundation dish out large sums to support Democratic-linked causes and were founded by businessman Drummond Pike. Planned Parenthood, for instance, gave $160,000 to the alliance in 2021, while George Soros’s Open Society Foundations network handed the charity $250,000 in 2020, according to disclosures.
As far as its anti-Israel ties, the alliance has appeared to sponsor the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel coalition, which previously was unable to fundraise after Salsa Labs stopped working with the Arizona charity, records show. BDS is now accepting credit card donations through the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, according to a Washington Examiner review.
The Lajee Center, a group located in the Palestinian refugee camp Aida in Bethlehem, Beit Jala, and Jerusalem, is another group the alliance has sponsored in the past, according to its website. The center’s director, Mohammed Alazza, has posted videos on Facebook appearing to depict Palestinian civilians and children clashing violently with the Israeli military.
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“The Alliance for Global Justice was rightly stripped of its ability to process credit card donations because of this unholy alliance and credit card companies severed their ties to the organization,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “For Stripe to give them a lifeline and allow them to again process transactions is deeply concerning.”
Alliance for Global Justice did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
