GOP Senators Want IRS To Yank Tax-Exempt Status For Organizations Involved In Campus Protests
A group of fifteen Republican Senators want the IRS to investigate whether groups involved in recent anti-Israel protests on college campuses violated their tax-exempt status by supporting Hamas, a designated terrorist group.
According to the letter, spearheaded by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), the AJP Educational Foundation (AJP), the Tides Foundation, the Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation (WESPAC Foundation), and others were offered to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in order to determine if they "engaged in conduct warranting revocation of their tax-exempt statuses on the basis of their financial support of NSJP," Just the News reports.
The letter notes that victims of the Oct. 7 attack in Israel have sued AJP and NSJP, accusing them of being a propaganda division of Hamas, and suggests that the organizations have "control" over Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, which have been heavily involved in campus protests.
Notably, George Soros has funded Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) through a constellation of nonprofits which all lead to the billionaire agitator.
At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are “fellows” of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
USCPR provides up to $7,800 for its community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for its campus-based “fellows” in return for spending eight hours a week organizing “campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.”
They are trained to “rise up, to revolution.”
The radical group received at least $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017 and also took in $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019. -NY Post
"It is long-established precedent that when 501(c)(3) organizations have ‘planned activities that violate laws’ or engage in activities designed ‘to induce the commission of a crime or if the accomplishment of the purpose is otherwise against public policy,’ the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has grounds to revoke their tax-exempt status," reads the Ernst letter.
"In fact, the IRS has set the precedent that ‘organizations have been held not to qualify for IRC 501(c)(3) on grounds that the activities of the organizations in question contravened public policy even though the organizations did not violate any federal statutes or state or local laws."
The letter also points out that these organizations and the protests are supporting Hamas, which has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
"In light of this abhorrent support for an FTO, we call on you to initiate an investigation to determine whether financial supporters of NSJP, including but not limited to AJP, the WESPAC Foundation, and the Tides Foundation, have engaged in conduct warranting their tax-exempt status to be stripped," they added.
The groups have defended themselves. For example, in a recent post on X, NSJP wrote that its members "are developing a generation of disciplined, politicized young leaders who will carry the torch of our struggle," adding "Long live the Student Intifada."
All of that said - Ernst is a huge recipient of pro-Israel campaign donations and has attended AIPAC events...
...so one has to wonder if using the IRS against Israel's enemies on this very horseshoe issue is anywhere near 'good faith.'
Read the letter below: