The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) has opened an investigation into American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), citing the group’s “extensive” connections to terrorist organizations and its involvement in anti-Israel campus protests across the country.
HELP Chairman Se. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) sent letters Thursday to Columbia University, Barnard College, UCLA, and George Washington University requesting details about AMP’s campus activities.
“Activity that threatens the safety of others is not constitutionally protected free speech, and conduct that violates campus rules should not be tolerated,” he wrote. “Reports of individuals with ties to terrorist groups or their affiliates engaging with students on college campuses are also cause for the highest alarm.”
As part of its investigation, HELP discovered that AMP has worked for more than a decade supporting Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) campus groups, providing training to students from a “few dozen universities” and calling its SJP initiative a “Signature Project.” AMP has further dedicated “a large portion of its budget to support student activism on college campuses” and offered “free materials, information, speakers, infrastructure like the apartheid wall, and grants” as part of its propaganda campaign against Israel.
“AMP’s close ties with campus SJP groups raise serious questions about AMP’s involvement in planning, organizing, and funding campus demonstrations that have posed significant threats to campus safety,” Cassidy wrote. “While college campuses should welcome free speech and the free exchange of ideas, they should not be havens for terrorist organizations to exert influence or instigate conflict for their own political purposes.”
Disturbingly, at least nine people associated with AMP have connections to terror groups. Among the most prominent are AMP Executive Director Osama Abuirshaid, who has published numerous incitement interviews with Hamas leader Abu Marzook and other terror leaders in Gaza. Others such as Jamal Said, described as “a regular keynote speaker at AMP fundraisers,” raised money for the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), which was recently shut down by the U.S. government after sending approximately $12.4 million to Hamas.
Cassidy has also contacted Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel seeking information on any existing federal investigations.
“I urge the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to ensure that the information you share with school officials includes information on threats to campus safety posed by outside groups with ties to Hamas, including AMP and AJP,” he writes.
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