A legal group coordinating with anti-Israel activists behind violent protests supporting Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack last year can thank a cadre of top progressive dark money donors for helping to keep its lights on, records show.
The ANSWER Coalition, a group engaging in anti-Israel activism in Washington, D.C., and in cities across the United States, appears to share close ties to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, according to property records, protest permits, and court filings reviewed by the Washington Examiner. The PCJF, a charity that litigates on behalf of protesters, rakes in large checks from megadonors — including one group tied to Arabella Advisors, a consulting firm doubling as the largest Democratic-aligned dark money network in the country, and another entity connected to the Rockefellers.
The ties between the progressive groups illustrate how anti-Israel activists planning protests after Oct. 7 receive boosts from influential dark money hubs doling out millions of dollars in anonymous donations to left-wing causes. Moreover, the ties are a window into the complex ways in which progressive activists coordinate, including on operations aiming to discredit the Jewish state and gin up support for Gaza.
“The ANSWER Coalition and other allied progressive, anti-Israel organizations have engaged in significant violence, destruction of property, and even the horrific intentional release of maggots and other insects at the Watergate Hotel where Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu stayed during his visit to Washington,” said James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center to Advance Security in America. “Violence or destructive behavior by any organization involved in anti-Israel and pro-Hamas demonstrations need to be investigated by law enforcement and Congress.”
The ANSWER Coalition, which did not return a request for comment, is technically not a stand-alone entity. Rather, it’s a project of a San Francisco-based charity called Progress Unity Fund, tax forms show. PUF also sponsors a Chinese Communist Party-linked initiative called Pivot to Peace, which saw one of its activists arrested last year over alleged Foreign Agents Registration Act violations as an agent for China, according to court records and a report by the Network Contagion Research Institute.
PUF receives major funding through donor-advised funds, a favorite of wealthy donors due to their ability to obscure initial sources of funding, according to tax forms.
The PUF’s ANSWER Coalition notably orchestrated a July anti-Israel protest in Washington, D.C., that turned violent, according to a public gathering permit obtained by the Washington Examiner. On the permit, the ANSWER Coalition listed three on-site contacts: Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Carl Messineo, a married couple who co-founded and lead the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, as well as Layan Fuleihan. Fuleihan is a top staffer for the People’s Forum, a self-styled “socialist” group linked to an international Chinese Communist Party propaganda network funded by wealthy American businessman Neville Roy Singham.
But it should come as no surprise that Verheyden-Hilliard and Messineo were listed as on-site contacts for the July protest. It was hardly the first time the PCJF worked to assist the ANSWER Coalition, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and other public records.
In fact, the PCJF shares an office address with the ANSWER Coalition in Washington, D.C., property records show. According to a deed obtained by the Washington Examiner, Verheyden-Hilliard and Messineo in 2007 purchased the property, which is now estimated to be worth around $1.5 million.
The PCJF takes donations from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Arabella Advisors-managed Windward Fund, the left-of-center Proteus Fund, and other donor-advised funds. Over the years, the PCJF has represented the ANSWER Coalition in legal matters concerning protest rights, and they coordinate on records requests to the federal government.
For instance, in March 2013, on the day socialist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez died, the PCJF and the ANSWER Coalition teamed up on a FOIA request to the CIA for records on “plans to poison or otherwise assassinate” Chavez.
The ANSWER Coalition has long been sympathetic to authoritarian Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, declaring on its website in a blog post, “We stand with Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution!” Brian Becker, the national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition, is “a founder of and a central organizer for the Party for Socialism and Liberation,” according to the People’s Forum.
The ANSWER Coalition has chapters in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and other major cities. Its Los Angeles offshoot is led by Pivot to Peace co-founder Sheila Xiao, who has collaborated for events with the People’s Forum, which recently published a book by a Palestinian terrorist group member.
To Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, it’s clear the ANSWER Coalition and other anti-Israel activist groups are organized by dark money groups and are not “grassroots.”
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“Congress should investigate the groups behind these anti-American, pro-terrorist, antisemitic rallies,” Klein said. “This is dangerous for America, American citizens, and Israel.”
The PCJF did not return a request for comment.
