US pro-Palestine group faces 'baseless' legal challenge after winning lawsuit
A Virginia court issued an injunction for a nonprofit group advocating for Palestine to turn over financial documents as part of an investigation by the state’s attorney general (AG) into whether they have provided material support to "terrorist" organisations.
In the latest twist in a tussle between the Virginia AG’s office and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which began in October 2023, Richmond City Circuit Court upheld on Friday the AG’s demands for AMP to comply with the AG’s civil investigative demand (CID).
The Falls Church, Virginia-based non-profit was targeted in the aftermath of the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel.
In October 2023, the AG first issued a CID “regarding its noncompliance with the state’s charitable solicitation law and an investigation into allegations that the organisation may have used solicited funds for impermissible purposes, such as benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations.”
In response, AMP filed a petition to “modify or set aside the demand”. The petition was denied by the Richmond City Circuit Court.
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According to the AG, AMP refused to respond to the CID, “forcing” the AG to bring a petition to enforce his CID in January 2025.
The court’s decision last week is a blow for the American advocacy group, which says on its website that its mission is “to educate the American public and media about issues related to Palestine and its rich cultural and historical heritage”.
The organisation has eight chapters across the country, including in California, Illinois, Connecticut, Texas, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, and North Carolina.
'A federal judge in Nevada just threw out the same unproven and baseless assertions because even on their face, they don't show what the law requires'
- Christina Jump, legal counsel for American Muslims for Palestine
In a statement, Republican AG Jason Miyares said: “When charitable organizations operating in Virginia fail to follow the law, my office has a duty to act, and we will not allow legal delay tactics to interfere with that responsibility.
"I will continue to ensure that charitable organisations operating in Virginia follow the law.”
Christina Jump, AMP's legal counsel, said in a statement to Middle East Eye that “AMP remains in full compliance with all Virginia laws".
“From the moment it first learned that it has inadvertently overlooked the need to file a form with Virginia's Department of Agriculture - because AG Miyares chose a press conference before contacting AMP - it has been and remains in compliance."
Jump is referring to Form 102, which she says AMP has since filed for all back years and continues to file for each current year.
Jump said that AMP would appeal to "beat unfounded targeting and inflammatory rhetoric”.
Jump also said she believed the AG’s concerns were related to allegations in a lawsuit in Nevada that had recently been thrown out.
Lawsuits after 7 October 2023
AMP, like many charitable or advocacy organisations for Palestine, has had to contend with lawsuits since the 7 October 2023 attacks.
On 6 May, the organisation won a legal case brought by University of Nevada, Las Vegas student Corey Gerwaski, who alleged that demonstrations on his campus “caused him mental anguish, violated his constitutional rights, and caused him to lose his job at the UNLV library”.
He also sued AMP and the UNLV chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine for “aiding and abetting terrorism and for intentional infliction of emotional distress”.
In his case, Gerwaski had alleged that AMP oversaw the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) group and claimed that AMP used NSJP "to operate a propaganda machine for Hamas and its affiliates across American college campuses to influence, wreak havoc and intimidate Jewish students on university campuses across the Nation".
Gerwaski also alleged that AMP "knowingly used or permitted the use of funds … to provide support to terrorists, terrorist organizations, terrorist activities, or family members of terrorists" and that "[d]efendants identify themselves as not just aligned with Hamas's terrorist activities, but 'PART of' them.”
The court dismissed all claims in the lawsuit. In a press release issued after the court case, AMP’s executive director Osama Abu Irshaid said: “This ruling confirms that the series of vexatious lawsuits against us have no legal basis and that their primary goal is to deter and silence anyone who dares to take a moral stand against Israel's genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
AMP's counsel, Jump, linked the two cases.
"The AG claims concern over allegations against AMP raised in a civil lawsuit in another state. Yet a federal judge in Nevada just threw out the same unproven and baseless assertions because even on their face, they don't show what the law requires.”
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