The WESPAC (Westchester People’s Action Coalition) Foundation, based in Westchester, New York, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that claims to be “a leading force…for peace and justice work.” WESPAC has been at the center of controversy due to its fiscal sponsorship of disruptive, and at times violent, anti-Israel and antisemitic activities in the aftermath of the Oct. 7th attacks.

These NGOs – including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Within Our Lifetime, Palestinian Youth Movement, U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Palestinian Feminist Collective, and Adalah-NY – are directly responsible for targeting Jews with antisemitic rhetoric and creating a hostile environment across the United States. Some have even expressed support for Hamas and the atrocities of Oct. 7th All of WESPAC’s sponsored NGOs are vocal leaders in the campaigns to undermine economic, military, and other ties between the US and Israel.

As a result of its NGO partnerships, WESPAC has faced severe consequences. It has been named as a defendant in multiple lawsuits, accused of failing to exercise proper oversight over its fiscally sponsored projects. At the same time, the fiscal sponsorships have apparently been dissolved, with NGOs switching to new fiscal arrangements.

WESPAC’s role in the antisemitic and anti-Israel ecosystem in the United States raises broad questions about the responsibilities of fiscal sponsors in supervising the activities of the organizations they support, tax-exempt status, and adherence to legal obligations of transparency and accountability.

Funding

In FY 2022-2023, WESPAC’s total income was $2.4 million; its total expenses were $1.8 million.

WESPAC’s sources of income are mostly unknown. Public records reveal a handful of foundational donors, including from large donor-advised charities that further obscure the origins of the funds (see Appendix).

In January 2025, WESPAC sent out a fundraising email claiming it was in “dire fiscal trouble” due to “legal warfare against us” – in reference to the multiple lawsuits launched against WESPAC and its fiscally-sponsored organizations (see below). According to the email, “The threat to WESPAC’s survival is real,” asking for $90,000 from supporters to “protect WESPAC from the precipice.”

WESPAC’s Fiscally Sponsored Organizations

WESPAC used its 501(c)(3) IRS status to serve as the fiscal sponsor for several anti-Israel NGOs that have been linked to antisemitism on university campuses and disruptive protests across the United States. This arrangement allows these NGOs to receive tax-deductible donations in the U.S., via WESPAC, but without having to publicly disclose financial information. According to one of the lawsuits naming WESPAC as a defendant, “The financial interactions between WESPAC and its anti-Israel clientele is intentionally opaque to largely shield from public view the flow of funds between and among them.”

In the wake of the post-Oct. 7th backlash against WESPAC and its fiscally sponsored groups, almost all the NGOs have secured alternative fiscal sponsorships.

Palestinian Youth Movement

Until May 2024, Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) directed its donations through WESPAC – 

its stated fiscal sponsor. Following multiple lawsuits naming both PYM and WESPAC (see below), in June 2024 PYM began soliciting donations via Honor the Earth, an “Indigenous-led organization fighting to dismantle settler-colonialism, racial capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism.” PYM organizer Nadya Tannous serves as deputy director of Honor the Earth, and PYM lead organizer Lenna Zahran Nasr serves as a board member. (Honor the Earth does not provide details on the donors and amounts disbursed for PYM activities.) 

According to a July 2024 report from the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, PYM maintains “close ties with the Popular Front and its affiliates, as well as with the SJP organization linked to Hamas.” Additionally, in 2019, a French court, citing a 2015 report from the French General Directorate for Internal Security, claimed that Palestinian Youth Movement is “affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” (PFLP).

After the events of Oct. 7th , PYM used funding directed through WESPAC to organize demonstrations, rallies, and student encampments across the United States and Canada, accusing Israel of “genocide.” On April 23, 2024, the PFLP terror group issued a statement expressing support for U.S. student groups like PYM and in support of American students: “We in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, along with all our people, the honorable of our nation and the world, confirm our steadfast support for the struggle of the students youth movements, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) at universities such as Columbia, Rutgers, Yale, Stanford, among others. We call for enhancing the unity of students and their struggle to divest American universities from the zionist entity and cut all forms of relations with it.”

In May 2024 – still under WESPAC fiscal sponsorship – PYM was one of the key conveners of the People’s Conference for Palestine. The conference featured speakers affiliated with the PFLP and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. As part of the promotion of the event, PYM shared an endorsement video by Salah Salah, one of the founding members of the PFLP. In the video, Salah “call[ed] on the members of the Palestinian and Arab communities and friends and supporters of our cause to participate in the People’s Conference…[It is a racist vitriol that offers a new model to Nazism… Participation in this People’s Conference is crucial on a large scale and on the highest level to set a plan that offers further coordination and an agreement on a strategy for unified action.”

At the event, Mohammed Nabulsi, a leading organizer in PYM, gave the opening remarks, calling to “liberate every inch of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea” and to “craft a path forward that truly brings the Zionist state and its military and its imperialist backers to their knees.” Nabulsi also led “participants in chants calling for intifada and praising Hezbollah and Houthi maritime terrorism.”

Students for Justice in Palestine

Various news outlets and legal documents discuss WESPAC’s  fiscal sponsorship for National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). However, the donate page on SJP’s website has been nonfunctional for four years, so it remains unknown whether this relationship is ongoing.

SJP is the organization most responsible for fostering a hostile environment on campuses through anti-Israel events, BDS initiatives, and the promotion of problematic speakers. Each SJP chapter operates independently and is responsible for forming its own constitutions, finding funding sources, and organizing activities. SJP has been suspended from multiple universities due to its violence and violation of campus policies. 

On April 23, 2024, the PFLP terror group issued a statement expressing support for U.S. student movements, including SJP: “We in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, along with all our people, the honorable of our nation and the world, confirm our steadfast support for the struggle of the students youth movements, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) at universities such as Columbia, Rutgers, Yale, Stanford, among others. We call for enhancing the unity of students and their struggle to divest American universities from the zionist entity and cut all forms of relations with it.”

In the wake of the October 2023 Hamas massacre – still under WESPAC fiscal sponsorship – SJP published a “Day of Resistance” toolkit referring to the attacks as a “historic win for the Palestinian resistance.” SJP additionally claimed, “This is what it means to Free Palestine: not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors.”

In June 2024, SJP promoted a  “summer school” to “entrench[] the frameworks necessary to sustain and grow the Student Intifada in the coming academic year.”

For further information, see NGO Monitor’s report, “BDS on American Campuses: SJP and its NGO Network.”

US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)

Until June 2024, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) directed donors to WESPAC, stating their donations were “tax-deductible, thanks to the fiscal sponsorship of WESPAC Foundation”; checks for USPCN were to be made out to WESPAC. In the summer of 2024, USPCN moved its online donation platform to Venmo, and by April 2025, USPCN began soliciting funds through the fundraising platform Zeffy.

On October 7, 2023 – still under WESPAC fiscal sponsorship – USPCN issued a statement justifying the attacks, describing them as “self-defense operations” by the “unified Palestinian Resistance.” USPCN framed the attack as a response to decades of “apartheid Israel’s brutality” and “Zionist settler-colonialism.” USPCN further claimed, “Palestinians have an internationally-recognized right to resist illegal military occupation, and today’s attacks from the Palestinian Resistance should be understood as a legitimate response to unending violence from Israel’s extreme right-wing, racist, white supremacist, zionist government and settler movement…Resistance has been warning Israel and its U.S. and Western European patrons to end their attacks on our people, but now we have no choice but to defend ourselves, because the Israeli military and racist settlers have been attacking and killing with impunity, and must and will be stopped! We will win our liberation and Return!”

In May 2024, USCPN was one of the key conveners of the People’s Conference for Palestine (discussed above).

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)

As of April 2025, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) website continues to direct donations through WESPAC’s fiscal sponsorship.

Liliana Córdova Kaczerginski, co-founder of IJAN, is also a member of Samidoun Spain. On October 15, 2024, the US and Canada designated Samidoun as a terrorist entity, describing it as a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.” In February 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense designated Samidoun a terrorist organization and “a subsidiary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).” According to the Ministry, Samidoun was founded by “members of the PFLP in 2012,” and Khaled Barakat, identified by the PFLP as “coordinator” of Samidoun, “is involved with establishing militant cells and motivating terrorist activity in Judea & Samaria and abroad.”

In November 2023, IJAN published a statement titled, “No Final Solution in Our Name – Never Again For Anyone.” IJAN alleged that “Netanyahu [has a] goal of a ‘final solution’ for ‘the Palestinian problem’…Gaza is a concentration camp and rapidly becoming a death camp. Gas chambers and firing lines have been replaced with bombs, tanks, and white phosphorous…As we offer solidarity with Palestinian resistance, we are reminded of the Warsaw and Vilna Ghetto and concentration camp uprisings against the Nazis. Both are acts of resistance against fascist regimes. In both cases, there is a struggle for freedom from genocide and ethnic cleansing and the right to exist as a free people.”

Within Our Lifetime

Until at least May 2023, WESPAC served as the fiscal sponsor of Within Our Lifetime (WOL). As of April 2025, its donation page appears to be no longer operational.

WOL is led by Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder and former chair of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in New York City. In June 2021, Kiswani participated in a conference, “Challenging Apartheid in Palestine: Reclaiming the Narrative, Formulating A Vision,” hosted by the Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. Conference organizers and sponsors, as well as other participants, were linked to various terror groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the PFLP.

Abdullah Akl, a WOL organizer, also serves as the Director of Advocacy & Civic Engagement for the Muslim American Society. According to a legal brief from federal prosecutors, MAS “was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” During an April 2024 protest, Akl led a chant calling for Hamas’ military spokesman, Abu Obaida, to bomb Tel Aviv.

On October 7, 2023, WOL published a statement declaring, “We must defend the Palestinian right to resist zionist settler violence and support Palestinian resistance in all its forms. By any means necessary. With no exceptions and no fine print.” 

In March 2024, WOL sponsored an event at Columbia University titled “Resistance 101” – despite the university refusing to host the event on campus. During the event, International Coordinator at Samidoun Charlotte Kates stated, “There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas.”

Palestinian Feminist Collective

Until at least July 2024, the Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) directed donations through WESPAC. As of April 2025, PFC claims to be fiscally sponsored by Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

In December 2023 – still under WESPAC fiscal sponsorship – PFC signed onto an NGO statement denying that Hamas perpetrated sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attacks and after, and titled, “‘Sexual assault’ as propaganda to facilitate Genocide in Gaza.” According to the NGOs, “Within their narration to justify the genocide, the US administration adopted, via recitations of its president, the allegations promoted by the Israeli occupation’s propaganda machine regarding the occurrence of ‘sexual assaults’ against Israeli female hostages in the Gaza Strip. No credible evidence or reports from independent international investigative bodies in this regard was provided. Such conduct in endorsing unfounded allegations without due diligence serves as a deliberate distortion of the struggle of the Palestinian people for liberation and their legitimate resistance against an occupying colonial entity.”

In August 2024, PFC was part of the NGO coalition that protested outside the Democratic National Convention, demanding that Democrats adopt anti-Israel policies. The central demand of the NGO coalition was to “End U.S. Aid to Israel…. We must stop our government from arming and supporting this genocide.”

Adalah-NY

Until at least August 2024, Adalah-NY referred to WESPAC as its “fiscal sponsor.” As of May 2025, Adalah-NY no longer has a donate option on its website.

Adalah-NY is a fringe organization that operates in the New York area. It is one of the most vocal proponents of anti-Israel BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns in the U.S., most commonly in the form of small, cringeworthy performative protests.

In November 2023, Adalah-NY participated in a pro-Palestine protest that shut down the Manhattan Bridge.

Legal Challenges

Since the October 7, 2023 massacre, WESPAC and the groups it has fiscally sponsored and funded have faced increased scrutiny for their involvement in organizing protests and various other disruptive activities. In January 2025, WESPAC acknowledged in a fundraising email that it had been named in multiple lawsuits, claiming that “the well-funded forces of darkness are now waging legal warfare against us.”

In September 2024, the House Ways and Means Committee asked the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of multiple nonprofits, including WESPAC, for sowing “chaos and discord in our society” during anti-Israel protests on college campuses. According to the Congressional correspondence, “Based on the multiple instances in which the WESPAC Foundation’s fiscally sponsored projects have led protests that led to arrests due to violations of local ordinances, it is our belief that the WESPAC Foundation does not qualify for tax-exemption under section 501(c)(3).” (In May 2025, the Zachor Legal Institute urged the IRS to “begin an investigation to review the tax-exempt status” of WESPAC over its fiscal sponsorship of Within Our Lifetime, a “violent, radical, and anti-Israel organization.”)

In addition to being named as a co-defendant in a number of lawsuits (see below), WESPAC is facing legal action from its insurer, the Alliance of Nonprofits for Insurance Risk Retention Group, which cited policy exclusions related to mob-related activities and WESPAC’s failure to disclose a fiscal sponsorship agreement that may have affected its insurance coverage.

The lawsuits naming WESPAC have highlighted concerns regarding the management of donations, with some alleging that WESPAC breached its federal duty to properly oversee the organizations it fiscally sponsored.

1. DC Lawsuit

In January 2025, WESPAC and Palestinian Youth Movement were named as defendants in a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia concerning a February 1, 2024 blockade of several intersections leading into Washington, D.C. According to the firm that filed the lawsuit, “Unlawful traffic blockades that trap innocent citizens in their cars are not a form of protest-they are acts of aggression. We are determined to hold accountable those who use intimidation and obstruction to push their agenda, and we will fight to protect the rights of Americans who were unjustly targeted by these disruptive, antisemitic actions.”

According to the lawsuit, “WESPAC was required to maintain ‘control and discretion’ over PYM to avoid jeopardizing its own tax-exempt status…to the extent WESPAC asserts that it did not exercise control and discretion over PYM, WESPAC acted tortiously by breaching its duty under federal law to exercise such control and discretion and is liable for its negligent or reckless supervision of PYM for PYM’s tortious acts.”

2. Chicago Lawsuit

In September 2024, WESPAC was named as a defendant in a lawsuit concerning the April 15, 2024 blockade of the main entrance into O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, which “snarled traffic for three hours and trapped innocent travelers in their cars.” 

Following the lawsuit, in February 2025, WESPAC’s insurer, the Alliance of Nonprofits for Insurance Risk Retention Group, filed a separate lawsuit asserting that it is not responsible for covering WESPAC’s legal defense costs as the insurance policy does not cover damages caused by a riot, unlawful assembly, or mob action. It further claimed that WESPAC entered into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with National Students for Justice in Palestine without notifying the insurer or paying additional fees for the agreement.

3. Virginia Lawsuit

In July 2024, victims of the October 7 attacks, including survivors and bereaved relatives, filed a lawsuit at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against WESPAC, American Muslims for Palestine, and National Students for Justice in Palestine, claiming, “Defendants are Hamas’s propaganda and recruiting arm in the United States; they fulfilled their purpose and answered Hamas’s call to action.” 

According to the lawsuit, “As the NY-based fiscal sponsor of NSJP, WESPAC receives and administers donations on behalf of NSJP. WESPAC then keeps a percentage of the donations and remits the rest to the groups that it fiscally sponsors. This arrangement enables NSJP to collect and distribute funds without transparency. The financial interactions between WESPAC and its anti-Israel and pro-Hamas clientele is intentionally opaque to largely shield from public view the flow of funds between and among them…as the fiscal sponsor of NSJP, WESPAC is responsible for how NSJP utilizes the funds it receives from WESPAC—which includes ensuring that the funds are used for charitable purposes…The clumsiness of WESPAC’s financial reporting is not the function of being a novice…Rather, it obfuscates the true nature of its finances and where they ultimately go.”

4. California Lawsuit

In July 2024, a federal lawsuit was filed by the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice against the organizers of a protest outside a California synagogue, WESPAC, Honor the Earth, CODEPINK, and Palestinian Youth Movement, alleging that the protest “violated federal law barring people from obstructing access to religious institutions.” According to the lawsuit, “While it [WESPAC] may have been founded as a ‘peace and action group,’ today it is focused almost exclusively on supporting and platforming anti-Israel and antisemitic causes, groups, and activists…It does so by abusing its tax-exempt status and fiscal sponsorships to provide financial and administrative support to groups and initiatives that actively denigrate, disparage, and attempt to ostracize pro-Israel and Jewish communities.”

5. New York Lawsuit

In July 2024, a lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York by students at Columbia University against WESPAC, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Within Our Lifetime, Columbia University’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, and Members of Congress including Jamaal Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar. According to the lawsuit, WESPAC was accused of “aiding and-abetting” as it was responsible for funding “instruction and training” of pro-Palestinian activists during the student encampments and “Wespac furthered the agreement by channeling funds to the NSPJ [sic] to support its work of training, coordinating, media support, and encouragement.” Additionally, the lawsuit claims, “NSJP lent substantial assistance and encouragement by training activists, coordinating and co-platforming on media, and providing public advocacy and funding. In spite of that knowledge, Wespac lent substantial assistance and encouragement as it continues to act as the fiscal sponsor for the SJP.”

WESPAC’s Post-October 7 Rhetoric

In describing the events of October 7th , WESPAC provided what it called “context” to the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel. WESPAC published a statement claiming, “It follows months and years of constant violence, pogroms, expulsions and other manifestations of apartheid inflicted on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem. We do not condone attacks on civilians or violence of any kind. We do recognize its root causes in oppression, injustice and apartheid” (emphases added). 

WESPAC also claimed it “support[s] without reservation  all nonviolent resistance to apartheid and we refuse to be labeled as anti-Semitic for opposing Israel’s apartheid policies of supremacy and separation.” 

In February 2024, WESPAC board chair Howard Horwitz claimed, “My Zionist beliefs were shattered by the historical facts. The partition plan robbed the Palestinian population of their homes, livelihoods, and land. This was the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians, the invasion and burning of 500 villages, and the denial of the Palestinian right of return. These facts cannot and will not be erased from history any more than Holocaust denial can erase the Holocaust….October 7 was horrible and emotionally devastating. Even as I am horrified by the atrocities committed by Hamas, I believe it is important to understand why these Palestinian fighters broke out from the ghetto wall. My outrage at Hamas’s atrocities quickly gave way to my outrage as Israel announced and began the ongoing implementation of genocide involving forced death marches and indiscriminate bombing and killing of over 27,000 Gazans, the vast majority women, and children…This is the liquidation of the ghetto called Gaza, a complete atrocity. There is no other way to look at what is happening at this very moment.”

Appendix: Publicly Available Information on Donations to WESPAC