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ADL Accuses Anti-Zionist Group of Violating US Federal Campaign Finance Laws
People attend a ‘Mourner’s Kaddish for Rafah’ demonstration in front of the White House in Washington, DC on May 30, 2024. Photo: Bryan Olin Dozier/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday filed a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) accusing the political fundraising arm of Jewish Voice for Peace of misrepresenting its spending and receiving unlawful donations from corporate entities, citing “discrepancies” in the organization’s income and expense reports.
The complaint lodges a slew of charges against Jewish Voice for Peace’s political action committee (JVP PAC), including spending almost no money on candidates running for office — a political action committee’s main purpose.
From 2020-2023, JVP PAC reported spending $82,956, but just a small fraction of that sum — $1,775, just over 2 percent — was spent on candidates, according to the complaint. The money went elsewhere, being paid out in one case for “legal services” provided by a company which “doesn’t appear to practice law” and other expenses.
The ADL described such spending as “unusual” and said that full disclosure of JVP PAC’s spending is necessary for assurance of its compliance with the Federal Election Campaign Act.
“Simply put, JVP PAC’s numbers do not add up, and despite repeated warnings from the FEC, the PAC has failed to correct the record,” ADL chief legal officer Steven Sheinberg said in a statement. “Moreover, while JVP PAC holds itself out to the public as a mechanism for supporting candidates for federal elected office, a significant majority of the PAC’s spending did not go to candidates or have any apparent direct connection to a federal campaign. The public deserves to know where this money is going, and the FEC must hold JVP accountable for violations of the law.”
The ADL also accused JVP PAC of amassing enormous in-kind contributions from its affiliate, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which is registered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a social welfare organization. While the group has reported compensating JVP for services it provided, there is evidence that the cash value of those services far exceed any amount JVP PAC has actually paid.
“The whole complaint demonstrates, in our view, pattern and practice of misbehavior that we should take very seriously,” Sheinberg, who filed the legal action, told The Algemeiner on Monday during an interview. “Taken together, together with the fact that they don’t spend money on candidates, it is very damning.”
Sheinberg noted that JVP PAC has been warned by the FEC, established in 1974 to regulate the flow of money into politics, about its conduct, a claim which The Algemeiner verified. Since 2020, the FEC has sent JVP PAC four requests for additional information (RFAI), citing incomplete disclosures, potential errors in its accounting, contributions which exceeded federal limits, and other issues.
“It’s a troubling set of facts that people should know about,” Sheinberg said.
JVP is a fringe anti-Zionist organization that has long celebrated terrorism against Israelis. Along with the terrorist-linked Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization, JVP has been implicated in numerous antisemitic incidents on college campuses. Representing a small fragment of the Jewish community, which is overwhelmingly Zionist, the group has been accused of being tokenized by anti-Israel groups as a way of concealing the antisemitic intent of targeting Jews and Israelis in higher education and, more broadly, calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.
At the conclusion of the academic year, the group played a role in helping SJP organize mass demonstrations in which students commandeered sections of their college campuses and refused to leave unless school officials acceded to their demands for a boycott of Israel and divestment from companies linked to it. Before that, it cheered Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
JVP has powerful friends. In 2023, a landmark report by the National Association of Scholars (NAS) senior fellow Ian Oxnevad revealed that it has, since 2017, received $480,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation whose endowment is valued at $1.27 billion. Between 2014 and 2015 alone, JVP brought in over half a million dollars in grants from various foundations, indicating a growing alignment of philanthropic organizations with the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel that is fueling antisemitism on college campuses.
“JVP is very open about its support for BDS,” Oxnevad wrote. “[It] has issued multiple statements in support of [Students for Justice in Palestine] on campus and against allegations of antisemitism from pro-Israel organizations. Cooperation between SJP and JVP is widespread across college campuses and has lasted for years since the BDS movement’s emergence.”
JVP did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ADL Accuses Anti-Zionist Group of Violating US Federal Campaign Finance Laws first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Washington Warns UK, France Against Recognizing Palestinian Statehood
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy leaves Downing Street, following the results of the election, in London, Britain, July 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Toby Melville
i24 News – The United States has warned the UK and France not to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state at a UN conference scheduled for June 17 in New York, the Middle East Eye reported Tuesday.
France and Saudi Arabia will co-host this conference on the two-state solution, with Paris reportedly preparing to unilaterally recognize Palestine. France is also pressuring London to follow this path, according to sources from the British Foreign Office.
French media reports indicate that French authorities believe they have the agreement of the British government. Meanwhile, Arab states are encouraging this move, measuring the success of the conference by the recognitions obtained.
This initiative deeply divides Western allies. If France and the UK were to carry out this recognition, they would become the first G7 nations to take this step, causing a “political earthquake” according to observers, given their historical ties with Israel. The Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer threatened last week to annex parts of the West Bank if this recognition took place, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
In the United Kingdom, Foreign Secretary David Lammy publicly opposes unilateral recognition, stating that London would only recognize a Palestinian state when we know that it is going to happen and that it is in view.
However, pressure is mounting within the Labour Party. MP Uma Kumaran, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the government was elected on a platform that promised to recognize Palestine as a step towards a just and lasting peace. Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, believes that there is no legitimate reason for the United States to interfere in a sovereign decision of recognition, while highlighting the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump on this issue.
The post Washington Warns UK, France Against Recognizing Palestinian Statehood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Police, Shin Bet Thwart Suspected Iranian Attempt Perpetrate Terror Attack
A small number of Jewish worshipers pray during the priestly blessing, a traditional prayer which usually attracts thousands of worshipers at the Western Wall on the holiday of Passover during 2020, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 12, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.
i24 News – The Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police thwarted another Iranian attempt to recruit Israelis, according to a statement on Tuesday, arresting a resident of East Jerusalem for allegedly carrying out missions for the Islamic Republic.
Iranian agents recruited the suspect, who in turn recruited members of his family. He is a resident of the Isawiya neighborhood in his 30s, and is accused of maintaining contact with a hostile foreign entity to harm the state by carrying out a terrorist attack against Jews.
The suspect had already begun perpetrating acts of sabotage and espionage, including collecting intelligence about areas in Jerusalem, including the Western Wall and Mahane Yehuda Market. He also hung signs, burned Israeli army uniforms, and more in exchange for payment totaling thousands of shekels.
He was also charged with planning a terror attack in central Israel, including setting fire to a forest, and was told to transfer weapons to terrorist elements in the West Bank.
The suspect’s sought the help of family members, including his mother. A search at his home revealed sums of cash, a spray can used in some of his activities, airsoft guns, suspected illegal drugs, and more.
His indictment is expected to be filed by the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office.
The statement said that the case is yet another example of Iranian efforts to recruit Israelis. “We will continue to coordinate efforts to thwart terrorism and terrorist elements, including those operating outside Israel, while attempting to mobilize local elements in order to protect the citizens of the State of Israel,” the Shin Bet and Police said.
The post Police, Shin Bet Thwart Suspected Iranian Attempt Perpetrate Terror Attack first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Russian, Anti-Israeli Hackers Pose Biggest Cybercrime Threats in Germany
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt holds a chart showing the development of antisemitic crime, during a press conference on Figures for Politically Motivated Crime in the Country, in Berlin, Germany, May 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Cybercrime in Germany rose to a record level last year, driven by hacker attacks from pro-Russian and anti-Israeli groups, the BKA Federal Crime Office reported on Tuesday as the government said it would boost countermeasures to combat it.
“Cybercrime is an increasing threat to our security,” said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. “It is getting more aggressive but our counter-strategies are also becoming more professional,” he said.
Some 131,391 cases of cybercrime took place in Germany last year and a further 201,877 cases were committed from abroad or an unknown location, a BKA report said.
The actors behind the hacker attacks on German targets were primarily either pro-Russian or anti-Israeli, said the BKA, adding targets were mostly public and federal institutions.
Ransomware, when criminals copy and encrypt data, is one of the main threats, said the BKA, with 950 companies and institutes reporting cases in 2024.
German digital association Bitkom said damage caused by cyberattacks here totaled 178.6 billion euros ($203.87 billion) last year, some 30.4 billion euros more than in the previous year.
Dobrindt said the government planned to extend the legal capabilities authorities could use to combat cybercrime and set higher security standards for companies.
The post Pro-Russian, Anti-Israeli Hackers Pose Biggest Cybercrime Threats in Germany first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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