Two influential US congressional panels have launched a major inquiry into the New Israel Fund (NIF), JNS reported on Friday.
According to the report, the House Judiciary and Ways and Means committees are examining allegations that the American-based leftist organization potentially violated federal tax laws by funneling non-profit capital into partisan political operations aimed at toppling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an official warning obtained by JNS, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) detailed how NIF may have breached its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status “by providing millions of dollars in funding to groups that engaged in political campaign activities in the 2019 Israeli elections."
US internal revenue laws strictly forbid public charities from intervening in foreign or domestic political races either directly or indirectly.
According to congressional investigators, the NIF covertly backed radical anti-Netanyahu networks.
“NIF provided approximately $356,000 to Zazim, an Israeli organization that ‘operated a transportation system that brought thousands of Bedouin voters’ to the polls that were part of the opposition party to Prime Minister Netanyahu," the lawmakers noted. They also revealed that the organization “also provided approximately $95,000 to Adalah, a group that ‘provided legal representation to the Joint Arab List,’ an alliance of Arab parties that centered their campaign around ousting Prime Minister Netanyahu in favor of his opponent, Benny Gantz."
Further compliance failures were flagged regarding a 2019 court filing indicating that the NIF actively interfered in the sovereign electoral map by securing signatures for a legal petition to block a right-wing legislative candidate. “When the Israeli Supreme Court banned the candidate, ‘NIF called it a victory for democracy,’" the chairmen noted.
The leftist organization has historically presented itself as an entity dedicated to bolstering civil equity, asserting that it has disbursed over $300 million to various left-wing frameworks since 1979. However, the prominent visual on their web portal showcases Arab MK Ayman Odeh, leader of the radical anti-Zionist Hadash-Ta'al faction.
Odeh, despite being an elected member of the Knesset, has made countless anti-Israel statements, including comparisons between Israeli hostages and Hamas terrorists.
Rep. Jim Jordan indicated to JNS that the evidence points to blatant meddling. “The law is the law. You’re not supposed to be using this for electioneering activity," he stressed. “It looks like they were."
Jordan clarified that this aggressive look into the NIF's ledger is the “next step" in a much broader federal crack-down targeting a highly integrated, left-wing, US-based nonprofit network that has aggressively capitalized opposition actors in Jerusalem, including cells that potentially secured direct or indirect subsidies from the Biden White House.
“I think it’s driven to alter outcomes and to undermine the guy who was elected as prime minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu," Jordan observed.
While the NIF has routinely denied executing partisan operations, lawmakers have issued demands for the group to immediately hand over complete financial disclosures regarding ten controversial left-wing Israeli NGOs, including notorious organizations like Breaking the Silence, Standing Together, and Darkenu.
Jordan predicted that the oversight panels are only scratching the surface of this left-wing network. “Whenever we do these investigations, typically the only thing we get wrong at the front end is that it’s always worse than we thought," he told JNS. “My gut says that will probably be the case again."
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)