The platform that processes the majority of Democrats’ campaign contributions is working with organizations that expressed support for Hamas’ terrorist attacks or attempted to justify them by citing Israel’s alleged human rights abuses.
ActBlue, the fundraising platform favored by Democratic politicians and left-of-center advocacy groups, is processing donations for Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Palestine Legal, US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and multiple chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), alongside others. These groups have put out statements either blaming Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel, calling the attacks a “desperate act of self-defense” or “legitimate” and promoting an Israeli-designated terror organization.
USPCN released a statement the day of the terrorist attacks calling them “self-defense operations” that constituted a “legitimate response to unending violence from Israel’s extreme right-wing, racist, white supremacist, zionist [sic] government.” The statement accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing and claims that “Palestinians have an internationally-recognized right to resist illegal military occupation.”
ActBlue processes donations for USPCN, according to the platform’s website. USPCN is a fiscal project of the WESPAC Foundation, which also fundraises through ActBlue.
Hamas killed at least 1,400 people, including 30 Americans, during its attacks on Israel; Hamas terrorists raped women and murdered children during the violence.
ActBlue processed $3.5 billion in donations to campaigns and organizations from 7.4 million unique donors during the 2022 cycle, according to the platform’s website. The New York Times described the platform as “Democrats’ not-so-secret weapon.”
Palestine Legal, another organization that uses ActBlue to fundraise, called Hamas’ attacks “one of the most significant acts of Palestinian resistance to Israel’s nearly eight decade long settler colonial project in Palestine,” and accused Israel of preparing to commit genocide. “There is no equivalence–moral or otherwise–between Israel’s nearly eight decades of ceaseless colonial violence, and the resistance that it has engendered,” the statement continued.
Black Lives Matter Grassroots posted a statement to its website asserting that it “stands in solidarity with our Palestinian family who are currently resisting 57 years of settler colonialism and aparthied [sic]” on Oct. 9.
“When a people have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense,” the group continued.
The organization doubled down on its statement on Oct. 16, posting it again on social media.
Clicking the donation link on Black Lives Matter Grassroots’ main webpage redirects to a donation portal maintained by ActBlue. Clicking the donation link on the page where the organization hosts its statement redirects to a fundraising portal run by the Tides Foundation, however. (RELATED: Rep. Colin Allred To Attend Campaign Fundraiser Hosted By Group With Radical, Anti-Israel Record)
The Tides Foundation “is a major center-left grantmaking organization and a major pass-through funder to numerous left-leaning nonprofit,” according to Influence Watch.
Black Lives Matter Grassroots stands in solidarity with our Palestinian family who are currently resisting 75 years of settler colonialism and apartheid.
It’s that important, we just had to say it again…#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/h1a1oxEMws
— BLM Grassroots (@blmgrassroots) October 16, 2023
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapters from Boston, Baltimore and San Francisco all released statements supporting Palestine in the days following Hamas’ attacks. All three groups have their donations processed by ActBlue.
“Violent oppression inevitably produces resistance,” the San Francisco DSA stated, “socialists support the Palestinian people’s, and all people’s, right to resist and fight for their own liberation … this weekend’s events are no different.”
The statement calls on individuals who share the DSA’s vision to “join the fight to end the occupation and decolonize Palestine–from the river to the sea.”
The Greater Baltimore DSA asserted that it “is unwavering in [its] solidarity with the people of Palestine in their decades-long fight to end the occupation and obtain national liberation” two days after the attacks. Boston’s DSA chapter released a statement the day after the attacks saying that it “stands with Palestine,” accusing Israel of various human rights abuses and asserting that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Tzipi Hotovely, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Israel, said “from the river to the sea” is a call for the “ethnic cleansing of Jewish people from their homeland.” Austrian authorities banned a protest for its use of the phrase in promotional materials, calling it a “clear call to violence” and noting that it had been adopted by Hamas, Reuters reported.
The Movement For Black Lives, which has its donations processed through ActBlue, retweeted joint statements that included Al-Haq, a group that was designated as a terrorist organization by the Israeli government in 2021.
One of the statements, released on Oct. 8, identified “Israel’s settler-colonialism, apartheid, and illegal occupation” as the “root causes” of Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7.
Israel designated Al-Haq, which presents itself as a “human rights organization,” as a terror group due to its members’ ties to the Popular Front for Palestinian Liberation (PFLP). The PFLP is a U.S.-designated terror organization that has hijacked planes, shot rockets at Israel and conducted suicide bombings, according to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Palestine Legal cited Al-Haq in its statement on the conflict.
The Movement For Black Lives has repeatedly described Israel’s defensive operations as a genocide.
None of the organizations mentioned above, including ActBlue, responded to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
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