top
Palestine
Palestine
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Reactionary US lawmakers hound Palestine relief and solidarity organizations

by Peoples Dispatch
The eight attacked organizations targeted by fascists are the Alliance for Global Justice, the Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation, Jewish Voice for Peace, Islamic Relief USA, United Hands Relief, the Peoples Forum, Tides, and Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation.
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and other Republican lawmakers launch direct attack against organizations standing with Palestine

On September 25, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson took to social media to attack several pro-Palestine organizations, which have been leading in the solidarity movement across the United States. Johnson referenced the action taken by the United States House Committee on Ways and Means, led by conservative Representative Jason Smith, which has called on the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of eight organizations. According to Smith, these organizations have โ€œorganized and subsidized illegal activity on college campuses and beyond and have potentially provided support to terrorist organizations overseas.โ€

The eight organizations are the ๐€๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐š๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐†๐ฅ๐จ๐›๐š๐ฅ ๐‰๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐œ๐ž, the ๐–๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐œ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐๐ž๐š๐œ๐ž ๐€๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐‚๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ž ๐…๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐‰๐ž๐ฐ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐•๐จ๐ข๐œ๐ž ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ž๐š๐œ๐ž, ๐ˆ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐š๐ฆ๐ข๐œ ๐‘๐ž๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐Ÿ ๐”๐’๐€, ๐”๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐‡๐š๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐‘๐ž๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐Ÿ, the ๐๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ ๐…๐จ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐“๐ข๐๐ž๐ฌ, and ๐€๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ง๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐‰๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐œ๐ž ๐ข๐ง ๐๐š๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ž ๐„๐๐ฎ๐œ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐…๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง.

โ€œ[Jason Smith] and [House Republicans] are putting you on notice. Your tax-exempt status should be revoked immediately,โ€ Johnson said.

Some organizations have responded to these attacks and rejecting what they call political persecution. The Peoples Forum, a New York City based social movement center, was accused by the Ways and Means Committee of engaging โ€œin conduct directly intended to incite riots, cause chaos, and disrupt education on college and university campuses and beyond, all despite its stated tax-exempt purpose and mission designed to support the working class.โ€

โ€œThis conduct is designed to sow chaos and discord in our society, has involved illegal activities, and certainly is not in furtherance of any tax-exempt purpose,โ€ the accusation continues.

The Peopleโ€™s Forum wrote in a statement, โ€œRight-wing Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson has joined other Republican leaders in a major political attack designed to criminalize dissent, and silence those who oppose the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The allegations are โ€œreminiscent of the worst part of the McCarthy Era,โ€ the organization wrote.

๐’๐“๐€๐“๐„๐Œ๐„๐๐“ ๐…๐‘๐Ž๐Œ ๐“๐‡๐„ ๐๐„๐Ž๐๐‹๐„โ€™๐’ ๐…๐Ž๐‘๐”๐Œ!

Right-wing Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson has joined other Republican leaders in a major political attack designed to criminalize dissent, and silence those who oppose the Israeli genocide in Gaza, by demanding that the Internal Revenue Service revoke the nonprofit status of The Peopleโ€™s Forum and other organizations. By promoting the Republicansโ€™ blatantly false allegations and demonizing language, reminiscent of the worst part of the McCarthy Era, Speaker Johnson is abusing his office by targeting people in the United States who are only โ€˜guiltyโ€™ of exercising their First Amendment right to speak out against the US governmentโ€™s policy of financing and arming the Israeli military so that it can carry out the killing spree that has taken the lives of more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, a great number of whom are children and their mothers. People from all political backgrounds and positions should stand together in defense of free speech rights, which are under attack. The political assault against The Peopleโ€™s Forum is part of a larger effort by Republicans and other right-wing forces in Congress to criminalize and demonize Palestinian, Muslim-American, and anti-war organizations. Everyone who believes in justice should stand together and reject this assault on democracy.
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$70.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network