IRS pressed by ADL to investigate anti-Israel groups linked to protests

EXCLUSIVE — The Anti-Defamation League is requesting the IRS launch investigations into a pair of anti-Israel nonprofit groups that it argued in a letter to the agency appear to be “abusing their tax-exempt status.”

In a Monday letter obtained by the Washington Examiner, the ADL made the case to the IRS why WESPAC Foundation and Alliance for Global Justice may be violating federal law. The two organizations are connected to anti-Israel protests after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year and, through an arrangement known as fiscal sponsorship, lend their tax-exempt status as charities to projects that the ADL warned are “engaging in activities that are contrary to public policy and raise serious concerns that we believe warrant further investigation by the IRS.”

“We believe it is in the interest of the IRS to understand the nature of WESPAC and AFGJ and what causes they are supporting,” ADL Chief Legal Officer Steven C. Sheinberg wrote in the letter to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.

The 10-page letter to the IRS from the ADL, a New York-based nonprofit group aiming to combat antisemitism, comes on the heels of the ADL in early July asking state attorneys general in New York and Arizona to investigate WESPAC Foundation and Alliance for Global Justice, or AFGJ.

The New York-based WESPAC Foundation houses Students for Justice in Palestine, a national group behind anti-Israel protests on college campuses. The Arizona-based AFGJ sponsors the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an Israeli-designated terrorist group, the Washington Examiner reported. AFGJ’s ties to Samidoun, among others, prompted payment processors and left-wing donors to sever relationships with AFGJ.

The ADL told the IRS in the Monday letter that AFGJ appears to be misleading donors and regulators about its activities and stewardship of charitable funds. That’s because AFGJ, Sheinberg said, does not make clear on its website how much control it exerts over projects such as Samidoun. The Israeli-designated terrorist group shares staffers with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist faction.

Moreover, the ADL raised concerns in the letter to the IRS about four different loans that AFGJ provided to interested parties, as detailed on AFGJ’s most recent tax forms for the fiscal year ending in March 2023. The tax forms indicate that the loans were given to board members and employees, though documents say a loan to AFGJ’s former president was not approved by the board, the ADL said.

“This transaction raises serious questions about whether the organization is engaged in excess benefit transactions with disqualified persons that would warrant imposition of the excise tax under Section 4958 or revocation of tax-exempt status,” Sheinberg wrote in the letter.

The ADL’s letter detailed examples of WESPAC Foundation’s projects being linked to certain antisemitic demonstrations in the United States.

“At least three chapters of SJP (including the chapter at City University of New York) have referred readers to Resistance News Network RNN — part of an encrypted messaging application that shares violent images and videos of attacks on Israelis and disseminates Hamas propaganda,” Sheinberg said, pointing to SJP’s resources online.

SJP also sponsors Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine, a group that, the ADL said, “routinely expresses support for violence against Israel and calls for the abolition of Zionism” and is “responsible for some of the most heinous antisemitic rhetoric and incidents seen in New York City since Oct. 7.”

“The blatantly antisemitic activities that members or affiliates of some of WESPAC’s fiscally sponsored projects promote or are engaged in call into question whether WESPAC is engaged in activities that are contrary to public policy and whether WESPAC truly has control and discretion over its funds,” Sheinberg said. “As you are aware, a section 501(c)(3) organization must be engaged exclusively in activities that further one or more exempt purposes.”

Meanwhile, the ADL also pointed to discrepancies in connection to WESPAC’s financial disclosures, some of which were reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

The ADL said there are numerous parts on its tax forms that WESPAC has engaged in “block reporting or ambiguous reporting” of its finances.

“For example, WESPAC categorically reports $1,465,828 in ‘office expenses,’” the ADL said. “This amount comprises approximately 82% of WESPAC’s total expenditures, an unusually high amount. . . It is unclear why WESPAC would be reporting such a high amount for these types of services, though it’s possible the amount encompasses other types of activities.”

“Further investigation is necessary,” the ADL said.

AFGJ and WESPAC did not reply to requests for comment.

The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.