American Muslims for Palestine

Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine (AMP) is a US-based grass­roots orga­ni­za­tion found­ed in 2006 by Hatem Baz­ian, with the stat­ed mis­sion of edu­cat­ing the Amer­i­can pub­lic about Pales­tine and advo­cat­ing for Pales­tin­ian rights through polit­i­cal activism and sup­port for the Boy­cott, Divest­ment, and Sanc­tions (BDS) move­ment. While the orga­ni­za­tion frames its work as civ­il rights advo­ca­cy, it is wide­ly iden­ti­fied by intel­li­gence ana­lysts and mon­i­tor­ing bod­ies— includ­ing the GIOR Senior Edi­tor —as the func­tion­al suc­ces­sor to the Islam­ic Asso­ci­a­tion for Pales­tine (IAP), a defunct enti­ty pre­vi­ous­ly found liable in fed­er­al court for act­ing as the pro­pa­gan­da arm of the Mus­lim Brotherhood’s “Pales­tine Com­mit­tee” in the Unit­ed States. This alleged con­ti­nu­ity is the cen­tral focus of the ongo­ing Boim v. Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine law­suit, in which plain­tiffs argue that AMP serves as an “alter ego” designed to con­tin­ue the IAP’s oper­a­tions while evad­ing a $156 mil­lion judg­ment for the Hamas-relat­ed killing of an Amer­i­can teenag­er. The orga­ni­za­tion is also cur­rent­ly under inves­ti­ga­tion by the Vir­ginia Attor­ney Gen­er­al for poten­tial vio­la­tions of char­i­ta­ble solic­i­ta­tion laws and alleged use of funds to sup­port ter­ror­ist organizations.

References:

• About AMP: Mis­sion and His­to­ry (Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Palestine)
• The Hamas Net­works in Amer­i­ca: A Short His­to­ry (Pro­gram on Extrem­ism, GWU)
• Evi­dence on Polit­i­cal Islam and the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (Steven Merley/GMBDW)
• Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine Pro­file (Influ­ence­Watch)
• Boim v. Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine, No. 20–3233 (7th Cir. 2021)
• Attor­ney Gen­er­al Miyares Holds AMP Account­able for Refus­ing to Com­ply with Inves­ti­ga­tion (Vir­ginia AG)

The Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine (AMP) is a Pales­tin­ian advo­ca­cy group with strong ties to both the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and to the Hamas sup­port infra­struc­ture in the US. A report by the Anti-Defama­tion League describes the AMP as “the lead­ing orga­ni­za­tion pro­vid­ing “anti-Zion­ist” train­ing and edu­ca­tion to stu­dents and Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions in the coun­try. The AMP board is chaired by Dr. Hatem Baz­ian who, in a video from an April 2004 anti­war-ral­ly, is seen call­ing for an “Intifa­da” in the US. Dr. Baz­ian lat­er claimed that his remarks on a US Intifa­da were misunderstood.