Anti-Israel activist downplaying Oct. 7 terrorist attack cuts checks to House Democrats

House Democrats accepted donations late last year from a staunch anti-Israel activist who helps lead an organization long accused of sharing ties to Palestinian terrorism, records show.

CEO Hussam Ayloush of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which federal prosecutors named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” of Hamas in a 2009 terrorism financing case, sprinkled $250 each last November and December into the campaign coffers for Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Barbara Lee (D-CA), the latter of whom is running for Senate, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Ayloush argued Israel “does not have the right to defend itself” against violence and has downplayed the Oct. 7 Hamas-led massacre that left more than 1,200 people dead in Israel.

“Since at least 2000, Democratic and Republican candidates running for Congress and the presidency have been forced to return donations from CAIR officials,” Benjamin Baird, a terrorism expert at the Middle East Forum think tank, told the Washington Examiner. “Candidates for higher office should send a clear message to CAIR and its antisemitic leaders by telling them: ‘Your money is no good here.’”

News of the contributions, which total $750 and were steered to the federal campaigns on Nov. 10, Dec. 10, and Dec. 15, come as Tlaib, Omar, and Lee call for a Middle East ceasefire and take aim at the United States for supporting Israel. The cash transfers underscore how left-wing lawmakers are often supported financially by Hamas-sympathizing activists who accuse Israel of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” for retaliating against Palestinian terrorists murdering innocent Jews.

Ayloush, who has led CAIR’s Los Angeles chapter since 1998, has called Israel a “murderous regime” like Iran that ought to be “terminated,” equated Jewish Americans joining Israel’s military to Muslims in terrorist organizations, and, as recently as November, said it’s a “lie” that the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack was “unprovoked,” adding, “If I hear that term again, I’ll go crazy.”

Meanwhile, CAIR has its own baggage. The group, which the White House recently disavowed over its attempts to justify Oct. 7, counts its national executive director as Nihad Awad, former public relations director for the Islamic Association for Palestine, a defunct entity that shared extensive ties to Hamas.

In November, Awad said he was pleased to see Palestinians on Oct. 7 “break the siege,” which prompted the White House to call his rhetoric “antisemitic.” CAIR’s name was later removed from a federal document detailing groups purportedly working to thwart antisemitism and Islamophobia.

It’s not the first time the lawmakers have failed to wave away cash from Ayloush.

The CAIR leader has given Omar more than $1,700 in recent years, as well as $250 to Lee’s Senate campaign in May, according to campaign finance disclosures. He has also donated to Tlaib, Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), and the 2020 presidential campaign for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

To the contrary, some campaigns have returned contributions from people affiliated with CAIR, including Abdurahman Alamoudi, a lobbyist who was handed a 23-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to finance and conspiracy charges.

Both Hillary Clinton and President George W. Bush returned campaign cash from Alamoudi in 2000, the Washington Post reported.

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Campaigns for Omar, Tlaib, and Lee did not return requests for comment.

Ayloush did not respond. The CAIR leader blamed “racist” Israel for the existence of Hamas in November.

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