The Department of State is financially supporting a nonprofit group in the Gaza Strip that has close ties to Palestinian terrorism, according to a new report.
Between September 2022 and December 2023, the State Department has a $41,000 agreement with Fares Al-Arab, a Gaza-based charity, to support a 15-month program to train Palestinian journalists, according to federal grant data. That same foreign charity has in the past partnered with Hamas, an anti-Israel terrorist group that is responsible for suicide bombings and violent attacks, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“Anyone who tried to work with the State Department following the abandonment of Americans in Afghanistan knows it is a deeply disappointing institution,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “To learn that it is actively funding groups that advance terror and seek to censor American free speech means that the problems there are even worse. Congressional oversight is already well underway. State should consider this fair notice.”
The grant is part of a program called “Investing in People in The Middle East and North Africa.” As a whole, the State Department dished out $187 million in 2021 in connection to the program and roughly $20 million in 2022, according to federal data.