One of the nation's loudest apologists for the Islamic terrorist group Hamas is a subsidiary of a leading left-wing dark-money group.
Almost immediately after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack that left more than 1,500 dead, the Adalah Justice Project circulated a solidarity pledge, with signatories declaring they "stand with the Palestinian people's right to defend themselves." The group, which bills itself online as an "advocacy organization … that builds cross-movement coalitions to achieve collective liberation," has held rallies in New York and Washington, D.C. Members of the group this month occupied the offices of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) and progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) to demand an Israeli ceasefire.
Although Adalah promotes itself as a grassroots group, it is in fact a subsidiary of the Tides Center, a left-wing dark money giant that manages more than $1 billion in assets and counts among its donor base the progressive billionaires George Soros and Pierre Omidyar. Tides maintains at least 160 "fiscal sponsorships," which allow the group to quickly launch seemingly grassroots organizations, which are not required to register their nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service. Notable Tides initiatives include the national Black Lives Matter group, which Tides fiscally sponsored in 2020.
An Omidyar Network spokeswoman would not say whether of not the group endorses Adalah's actions, telling the Washington Free Beacon that the tech mogul does not "fund the Adalah Justice Center." Neither the Adalah Justice Project nor the Tides Center responded to a request for comment.
Through Tides, Adalah draws funds from major left-wing philanthropies such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which has funneled $710,000 to the Tides Center in earmarked funds for Adalah since 2018. During that same timeframe, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund donated an additional $2.7 million to other Hamas-friendly groups, including an Israeli-designated terrorist group, the Free Beacon reported.
The Soros-funded Open Society network in 2019 also contributed $225,000 to pro-Palestinian initiatives housed at the Tides Center, but it is not clear whether Adalah benefited from those funds. Representatives for Soros and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund did not respond to requests for comment.
The Tides Center's backing has helped Adalah emerge as one of the most aggressive groups working in U.S. cities and on university campuses to delegitimize Israel's response to Hamas's attacks. The group used its Instagram account to promote pro-Hamas messages from like-minded accounts, including one post calling for similar acts of "anti-colonial" terrorism in the United States.
Adalah executive director Sandra Tamari praised the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered at least 260 people at a music festival as "the oppressed rising up" against Israeli "occupation" of Gaza.
"We're seeing countless accounts coming out of Gaza now, saying it's better to die than to remain caged. People can only accept so much oppression," Tamari told Yes! magazine on Oct. 11. "Violence didn't begin with Hamas's attack. Hamas's attack was resistance to an intolerable situation that has been taking place in the Gaza strip."
Adalah's fiscal sponsorship allows it to spin off its own affiliate organizations. Already, the group has launched the "Gaza is Palestine" initiative to organize protests and "influence media, policy, and grassroots pressure to keep the stories of Palestinian families decimated by Israeli state violence in the public eye."
Adalah is partnering on the initiative with MPower Change, a "Muslim grassroots movement" run by notorious anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour. Both corporations and Democrats have distanced themselves from Sarsour in recent years following a string of anti-Semitic remarks. President Joe Biden's campaign in 2020 denounced Sarsour and the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, of which Sarsour is a leader.
The Adalah Justice Project is no stranger to extreme anti-Israel activists. The group's communications director, Sumaya Awad, is a longtime anti-Israel activist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has criticized Israel and called for a ceasefire in the wake of Hamas’s attacks. As an undergrad, Awad founded her college's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Students for Justice in Palestine in recent weeks organized a number of pro-Hamas demonstrations across the country and earlier this month celebrated Hamas's attacks on Israel as a "historic win for the Palestinian resistance."