Congressional Democrats pocketed campaign donations from a leader within an anti-Israel organization that has long been accused of being linked to Palestinian terrorism, records show.
Over the last two decades, Hussam Ayloush has sprinkled tens of thousands of dollars combined into state and federal committees, including those for Democratic members of Congress, such as “Squad” Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Cori Bush (D-MO), according to campaign finance disclosures reviewed by the Washington Examiner. Ayloush, who once argued Israel “does not have the right to defend itself” against violence, is CEO of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a group the White House recently disavowed over its justification of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack against the Jewish state.
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The cash transfers highlight how left-wing politicians are regularly boosted financially by activists sympathizing with Hamas while accusing Israel of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” for retaliating against Palestinian terrorism factions that murder innocent Jews. There has been an at least 337% rise in antisemitic incidents in the United States since Oct. 7, a day that saw more than 1,200 people killed in Israel, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“The lawmakers should not take any such donations, and they should return them,” Peter Flaherty, CEO of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, told the Washington Examiner. “These members of the ‘Squad’ have a bum rap when it comes to antisemitism. It’s a problem.”
CAIR, which was founded in 1994, was notably named by federal prosecutors as an “unindicted co-conspirator” of Hamas in a 2009 terrorism financing case. The national CAIR organization’s executive director is Nihad Awad, ex-public relations director for the Islamic Association for Palestine, a defunct nonprofit group that shared extensive ties to Hamas. Awad asserted in November he was happy to see Palestinians “break the siege” on Oct. 7, leading to the White House calling his rhetoric “antisemitic” and removing CAIR’s name from an online government document about organizations purportedly working to fight antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Since 1998, Ayloush has led CAIR’s chapter in Los Angeles. During that time, the executive director has called Israel a “murderous regime” like Iran that should be “terminated,” equated Jewish Americans joining Israel’s military to Muslims joining terrorist organizations, and, lately, downplayed Oct. 7. Ayloush said in November it’s a “lie” that the Hamas-led attack was “unprovoked,” adding, “If I hear that term again, I’ll go crazy.”
Still, in May, Omar’s campaign accepted a $200 check from Ayloush, who that same month dished out $257 to the California Democratic Party, which counts him as an executive board member and delegate, according to Ayloush’s LinkedIn account. Ayloush also donated $250 in May to the Senate campaign for Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who has demanded a Middle East ceasefire.
Omar, who often faces scrutiny from her congressional colleagues for her rhetoric slamming Israel, has received more than $1,700 from Ayloush, records show. Meanwhile, Ayloush donated in recent years to the likes of Tlaib, Bush, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), plus the 2020 presidential campaign for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
“Voters should take note of who is funding their elected officials,” investigator Susannah Johnston for Focus on Western Islamism, a project of the Middle East Forum think tank, told the Washington Examiner. The public should demand elected officials pledge not to accept any donations from CAIR’s leaders, who “vocally support designated terrorists,” she said.
The California Democratic Party has accepted roughly $1,000 since 2013 from Ayloush, who has also contributed at least $4,700 to state committees in California, according to campaign finance disclosures. Included in that sum are funds Ayloush directed to CAIR’s California political action committee, which, in turn, shelled out $5,000 to support Tlaib in 2022, records show.
The PAC previously poured $5,000 into Omar’s campaign in 2018 and has, over the years, donated to the Senate campaign for now-Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Reps. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Andre Carson (D-IN).
Carson, who has met with the antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, has also received campaign money from Ayloush.
Ayloush often shares articles on social media that are hypercritical of the Jewish people and, on Nov. 9, blamed Israel for the existence of Palestinian terrorist factions upon an X, formerly known as Twitter, user asking him, “Are you ok with what Hamas did on 10/7?”
“And if Israel did not occupy Palestine, steal Palestinian land to build illegal settlements for Jews-only, and impose its brutal apartheid on Palestinians, there would not be a Hamas, PLO, or Fatah to begin with,” Ayloush wrote on X. “Let’s end that barbaric and racist occupation.”
The X user then re-upped their question, asking, “Are you okay with what Hamas did on 10/7?”
However, Ayloush did not reply to it.
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“Cashing checks from those who justify Hamas raping Israeli women and burning babies alive in ovens tells you all you need to know about extreme House Democrats,” Will Reinert, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “They’re antisemitic, and they’ll always side with barbaric terrorists over innocent Israelis.”
CAIR did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner, nor did its California chapter.
