Pro-Israel Groups Urge Trump to Sanction Palestinian NGOs Out of Existence

Part of the Series

Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation

As Donald Trump looks for new methods to crush the Palestine solidarity movement some groups allied with his cause are suggesting potential targets. A coalition of 45 pro-Israel organizations, led by the Zachor Legal Institute, have sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department, asking that it sanction six Palestinian nonprofits that they allege either directly or indirectly support the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian leftist movement with both political and armed wings.

The letter follows the U.S.’s designation of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as a sponsor of terrorism on October 15, 2024. For years, pro-Israel lobbyists had asked the U.S. to follow Israel’s line and shut down Samidoun’s fundraising in the U.S.

Samidoun, which the Israeli government and its allies have claimed is an unofficial front of the PFLP, without any credible evidence, has long worked beside Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees, the nonprofits named in the letter. The nonprofits document Israel’s violations of international law in the West Bank and also provide direct aid to Palestinians living under Israel’s military occupation.

The U.S. State Department has listed the PFLP as a “foreign terrorist organization” since 1997, when it first created the designation. The PFLP is one of the two largest factions in the Palestine Liberation Organization, which is recognized by the United Nations General Assembly as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Zachor, “which bills itself as fighting the “delegitimization of Israel,” and the other signees asked that the Trump administration act expeditiously to use the full weight of the federal government to hamper the work of the six Palestinian nonprofits. They write in the letter, “While these organizations are less recognized in the United States, there is strong evidence indicating that they are integral to the network supporting Palestinian terrorism and warrant the same SDN designations as Samidoun.” SDN refers to Specially Designated Nationals, a list administered by the Treasury Department of sanctioned individuals and entities.

This isn’t the first time since Trump’s election that pro-Palestine nonprofits have come under attack. HR 9495, known as the “nonprofit killer bill,” would allow the Treasury Secretary and by proxy, the president, to designate nonprofits as “terrorist supporting organizations,” and to strip them of their tax-exempt status, a functional death blow. The bill passed in the House during the last Congressional session with support from Republicans and some Democrats but stalled in the Senate; if reintroduced, civil liberties advocates worry it could pass more easily thanks to the Senate’s new Republican majority.

“The anti-Palestinian groups that sent this letter to the Treasury Department apparently have as little respect for Palestinian human rights as they do for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”

Israel has long targeted all aspects of Palestinian civil society, including human rights nonprofits who are working to document its violations of international law in the West Bank. In 2021, Israel baselessly designated the six Palestinian nonprofits listed in Zachor letter as “terrorist entities,” sparking an international outcry. Israeli forces raided their Ramallah offices, confiscated equipment and barred them from operating in the West Bank. Amnesty International condemned the 2021 designation as a “campaign of repression against Palestinian civil society.”

A classified report from the Central Intelligence Agency, published by The Guardian in 2022, said that the U.S. had no evidence that any of the six organizations had direct or indirect ties to the PFLP. Despite this, Israel held the designation, and the U.S. did not issue a rebuttal.

Al-Haq, one of the six organizations, was involved in the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) inquiry into Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and supplied evidence for the proceedings. Local Call and The Guardian later revealed that Israeli intelligence had spied on and attempted to intimidate officials at Al-Haq and other Palestinian nonprofits who were assisting ICC officials in their investigation. Israel, between 2020 and 2021, also infiltrated the devices of six Palestinian human rights defenders with the powerful Pegasus spyware, developed by the Israeli NSO group. Ubai Aboudi, the executive director at Bisan Center, was one of the targets; all six worked at nonprofits who had been designated “terrorist entities” by Israel.

With international watchdogs barred from entering Gaza after October 7, the responsibility for documenting Israeli forces’ incitement to genocide and genocidal conduct has fallen on Palestinian journalists and nonprofits. The same can be said in the West Bank, where Israel has stepped up its military operations in the wake of the ceasefire agreement, which it has labeled, “Operation Iron Wall.” According to UN statistics, at least 40,000 Palestinians have been internally displaced due to Israeli forces’ operations in Palestinian territory since October 7.

Israel has been widely accused of arbitrary and illegal home demolitions, destruction of civilian infrastructure, blanket sieges on civilian areas and using Palestinians as human shields during its ongoing operation. This is why Aboudi says the coalition’s letter and campaign are so dangerous. “This is an indication of how politicized the terrorism designation is. A political push trying to silence Palestinian human rights organizations at a time of increased violations of international humanitarian law and international law against Palestinian civilians,” he told Truthout.

Zachor sent an earlier version of the letter with the same demands to then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on October 23, 2024. However, Marc A. Greendorfer, president of Zachor Legal Institute, acknowledges in the later version of the letter sent on February 12, 2025, that they “are now submitting this request, hopeful that the new administration’s focus on combating terrorism will ensure prompt attention and action.”

The letter comes as the Trump administration escalates attacks on free speech on university campuses. In the weeks after it was sent, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who recently graduated from Columbia, threatening him with deportation for his legally protected pro-Palestine activism. According to Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the letter should be seen in the context of this broader assault.

“The anti-Palestinian groups that sent this letter to the Treasury Department apparently have as little respect for Palestinian human rights as they do for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Demanding that the Treasury Department designate human rights organizations in Israel and Palestine as terrorist groups is effectively a demand for the government to disregard federal law for the benefit of a foreign government, engage in apartheid and genocide,” he said.

While Israel hasn’t shied away from attacking Palestinian nonprofits directly, the U.S., except in select cases as with the Holy Land Foundation, has previously refrained from directly sanctioning them. Instead, it has stood by as Israel chooses how to deal with civil society in the West Bank. However, if the Trump administration chooses to impose sanctions directly on the six nonprofits, it will represent a significant escalation in the U.S.’s engagement with Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank, as it directly aids and abets Israel’s attacks on civil society organizations working to document violations of Palestinians’ human rights.