EXCLUSIVE — The Department of Justice should force anti- Israel activists behind protests boosting Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack to register as foreign agents, according to a conservative legal group.
America First Legal, a group led by former Trump administration officials, sent a petition on Friday to the DOJ’s national security division requesting that it enforce the Foreign Agents and Registration Act on pro-Palestinian groups and their leaders. Those groups include Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation, also known as American Muslims in Palestine, and its director, Osama Abuirshaid.
The DOJ, America First Legal argued in a 13-page letter, should also seek FARA registration from the New York-based WESPAC Foundation, the charity’s National Students for Justice in Palestine offshoot, and Hatem Bazian, the founder of both American Muslims for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine.
These individuals and groups, according to the conservative legal group, appear to be “public relations counsel” as defined under FARA law and engaged in “political activities” in the interests of Hamas and other Palestinian entities that act as foreign principals. The DOJ has long faced scrutiny from outside groups and lawmakers for failing to enforce FARA, which the agency’s own watchdog concluded in a sprawling 2016 report is not being enforced aggressively enough by the DOJ.
FARA, enacted in 1938, requires certain agents of foreign principals engaged in political activities to make periodic disclosures to the DOJ of their ties to overseas parties. Such disclosures are publicly viewable in filings on the DOJ’s website. Foreign principals include governments, political parties, people outside the United States, and other groups operating primarily overseas, according to federal law.
MORE: