After ACLJ Jerusalem Office Sounded Alarm in 2023, Latest Judiciary Committee Report Keeps Following the Anti-Israel Money Trail – and It’s Huge

Three years ago, as Israel was being torn apart by unprecedented political unrest, our ACLJ Jerusalem office began asking a simple question:

Who was paying for it?

At the time, much of the Western media portrayed the mass demonstrations surrounding Israel’s judicial reform debate as an organic grassroots movement. But as we examined Israeli filings, public records, media reports, and financial disclosures, troubling evidence began to emerge.

Enormous sums of money originating in the United States appeared to be flowing into organizations that were not merely participating in Israel’s public debate but actively working to topple Israel’s democratically formed coaltion government and shape the outcome of one of the most consequential constitutional and political struggles in Israeli history.

We believed the American people deserved answers.

So we gathered evidence, translated documents, and brought our findings directly to congressional leaders, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and his staff.

Last year, the House Judiciary Committee released its first report, documenting what it described as vast funding streams flowing from American sources into Israeli NGOs involved in the anti-judicial reform protest movement. Many of the concerns that had been dismissed when first raised were now being examined by Congress itself.

Now the Committee has issued a second report.

That fact alone is significant.

Congressional investigations often begin with preliminary findings that ultimately go nowhere. That is not what happened here. Instead, investigators continued digging, issued additional subpoenas and requests, reviewed more documents, and returned with a second set of findings suggesting that the scope of the problem may have been even larger than initially understood.

This story is not shrinking. According to the Committee, it is growing.

And that should concern every American who cares about government accountability and every friend of Israel who cares about the security and stability of the Jewish State.

According to the Committee’s latest memorandum, released on May 29, investigators uncovered additional funding pathways involving organizations that received grants from USAID, the State Department, and other federal agencies. The Committee alleges that some of these organizations ultimately helped support groups engaged in anti-government activism in Israel and, in some cases, millions of dollars flowed through networks linked to anti-Israel extremism and terrorist-connected entities.

Chairman Jordan summarized the issue bluntly:

Our government is sending American tax dollars to NGOs that are undermining our ally—our best ally—the State of Israel. . . . You’re taking taxpayer money, you’re supposed to be doing good work. . . . Why in the heck is it going to groups that are pro-Hamas?

Reasonable people can disagree about Israeli domestic politics.

What Americans should not disagree about is whether U.S. taxpayer dollars should be used to influence the internal politics of a democratic ally by creating civil unrest and supporting US-designated foreign terror organizations waging war on that ally.

Democracy matters and our allies deserve our respect and support.

But there is an even deeper concern.

In the months before October 7, Israeli society was consumed by internal conflict. Massive demonstrations, public recriminations, threats of civil disobedience, and unprecedented political polarization dominated headlines. Throughout that period, many Israelis warned that the country’s enemies were watching carefully.

Israel’s enemies openly celebrated the discord they saw inside Israeli society. They viewed it as an opportunity. Multiple post-October 7 investigations and intelligence assessments concluded that Israel’s enemies closely monitored the country’s internal divisions and interpreted them as evidence of weakening deterrence and national cohesion. Israel’s enemies viewed the internal strife as their opening to launch their attack.

No serious observer can deny that Israel’s enemies benefit when Israeli society is fractured, demoralized, and consumed by internal conflict.

That reality makes the allegations in the Committee’s reports all the more troubling.

Money provided under the banners of “democracy promotion,” “civil society,” and “peace-building” helped intensify divisions at precisely the moment when Israel faced growing threats from enemies committed to its destruction.

The ACLJ has long defended Israel’s right to exist, its right to defend itself, and its right to make its own democratic decisions free from outside coercion. Whether Israelis choose one policy or another is for Israelis to decide.

The House Judiciary Committee’s investigation continues, and we at the ACLJ will also continue following the facts wherever they lead.

We will continue demanding transparency.

We will continue defending the democratic sovereignty of America’s allies.

And we will continue asking the same question we first asked in 2023:

Why were American taxpayer dollars flowing into organizations that were helping destabilize Israel during one of the most dangerous periods in its modern history?

The American people deserve an answer. The people of Israel deserve an answer. And everyone who believes in the enduring Judeo-Christian partnership between the United States and Israel deserves an answer.