An organizer for a prominent anti-Israel group complains that some “Palestinian political organizations” that he considers allies have been “criminalized.” His group doesn’t say which ones, though.
Mohammed Nabulsi, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, appeared to refer to organizations internationally recognized as foreign terrorist groups during an interview with the International Journal of Socialist Renewal, a left-wing publication.
The International Journal, which published the interview Friday, asked Nabulsi about the Palestinian Youth Movement’s “relations with organizations in Palestine.”
“It’s very difficult for us to directly engage Palestinian political organizations, because the dominant ones that are carrying the movement are deemed illegal and criminalized,” Nabulsi, a Houston lawyer, replied. “You really can’t engage in a direct way or in a coordinated way.”
“Instead, our politics develop independently through our shared struggles,” he said.
Nabulsi, who is in his early 30s, told the journal that the Palestinian Youth Movement, founded in 1982, is “an extension of our homeland politics.”
“There are organizations and institutions that are not criminalized and that we do have relationships with—these are the nonprofits, the NGOs, the unions, etc.,” he said.
“At the same time, the problems and the issues facing our respective institutions differ,” Nabulsi added. “Engagement can only exist on some high level and not in the nuances.”
The Palestinian Youth Movement didn’t respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about what overseas organizations it considers allies.
Nabulsi, like his organization, has a history of endorsing Hamas and other terrorist groups that say they are bent on the destruction of Israel.
In May, Nabulsi helped run an anti-Israel conference in Detroit, where he praised the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah as well as Hamas terrorists who hide in tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem Post reported. The Texas-based activist has held multiple leadership roles in the Palestinian Youth Movement and now organizes for its Houston chapter.
The Palestinian Youth Movement gained attention in recent months by celebrating Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, which left 1,200 dead and 250 taken hostage. Hamas is the elected government of Gaza.
The Palestinian Youth Movement has also participated in protests against the Jewish state and, most recently, released maggots and worms in the hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stayed during his visit last week to Washington.
The anti-Israel organization describes itself as “a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and in exile worldwide as a result of the ongoing Zionist colonization and occupation of our homeland.” It discloses little to the public about its funding or partner entities.
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., earlier this month sent a letter asking the Justice Department to investigate Nabulsi’s group and other anti-Israel organizations for taking funds from a China-linked donor, suggesting that their members may be breaking federal law regulating foreign agents.
A coalition of Republican senators also asked the IRS in May to evaluate the tax-exempt status of the WESPAC Foundation, a New York nonprofit that sponsors the Palestinian Youth Movement and other anti-Israel organizations.