Rashida Tlaib had the crowd eating out of her hand.
It was March 2018, and the hookah lounge in a working-class suburb outside of Chicago was packed.
Warm and engaging, switching frequently between English and Arabic, Tlaib – a Michigan State representative with larger ambitions – pleaded for out-of-state donations to help her become the first Palestinian American in Congress.
She unashamedly told the audience that her Detroit constituents often declared: ‘Rashida is a warrior, and this is a war we’re in.’
Sitting in the front row, Rafeeq Jaber listened intently, seemingly impressed and knowing a thing or two about raising money to wage war.
For Jaber’s now-defunct charity, the Islamic Association for Palestine, was found legally liable for financing the Hamas murder of an American and ordered to pay a $165 million settlement to the victim’s family.
Jaber’s 2018 attendance – confirmed to DailyMail.com by a national security research institute – at an event for a future-U.S. Congresswoman would likely shock most Americans. But he was far more than simply a guest.
Rashida Tlaib had the crowd eating out of her hand. It was March 2018, and the hookah lounge in a working-class suburb outside of Chicago was packed. (Above) Tlaib’s campaign event outside of Chicago, Illinois
Sitting in the front row, Rafeeq Jaber (above, in red circle) listened intently, seemingly impressed and knowing a thing or two about raising money to wage war.
Jaber was a prominent host of Tlaib campaign gatherings, and he remains unrepentant today – even refusing to condemn Hamas when asked to do so by DailyMail.com.
What’s more, he is not Tlaib’s only major supporter with alleged ties to the vicious killers now responsible for the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
There’s Wisconsin furniture salesman Salah Sarsour, who co-hosted a party for Tlaib in July 2018 in Milwaukee. His name appears on the official Tlaib invite to the event.
Sarsour is known to U.S. counter terror experts as being a suspected fundraiser in one of the largest pro-Hamas money laundering operations in U.S. history.
Then there’s Abdelbaset Hamayel, whose name is listed alongside Jaber’s as a co-host on an official ‘Rashia Tlaib For Congress’ invitation to a meet and greet at the Jerusalem Banquet restaurant in Bridgeview, Illinois in July 2018.
Hamayel was a purported point person for another charity, named KindHearts, that was accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of financing terrorism in 2006.
Tlaib’s defenders claim it is unreasonable to expect her to know the background of all the guests at her campaign events or the 45,000 donors named on her Federal Election Commission records.
That’s fair enough.
Yet she certainly should know the identities of her co-hosts.
Perhaps most troubling of all is the thread tying these Tlaib’s campaign boosters together, as a DailyMail.com investigation has now revealed that each of them are connected to an alleged pro-Hamas network that – to this day – is under investigation for supporting terror.
‘DECEIVE & CAMOUFLAGE’: HAMAS’ PATRONS IN AMERICA
The origins of the pro-Hamas network in America can be traced to an October 1993 meeting at a Marriott Courtyard hotel in Philadelphia.
Shortly after the fledging terror group launched its first suicide bombing, killing one and injuring 10 people at a rest area on the Jordan Valley Highway in the West Bank, sympathetic activists met in Philly for a secret three-day conflab.
They anticipated that the U.S. government would declare Hamas a ‘foreign terror organization’ – which it did in 1997 – and block the flow of donations to the group.
The participants debated how they could continue providing support to Hamas, and they knew they had to be careful: U.S. law enforcement may be listening.
So, the attendees were circumspect – pronouncing the terror group’s name backward as ‘Samah’ or simply as ‘the movement.’
There’s Milwaukee furniture salesman Salah Sarsour, who co-hosted a party for Tlaib in July 2018 in Milwaukee. His name appears on the official Tlaib invite to the event (Above, Sarsour’s name is underlined).
Tlaib (above, middle-right) attended a July 2018 fundraiser in Wisconsin hosted by Salah Sarsour (above, middle-left), and posed for photos with him (bottom right) in a now-deleted Facebook post
The paranoia was justified. The Bureau was listening.
FBI agents had bugged the meeting, and subsequent recordings were used to convict some of the participants for backing terrorism.
‘I swear by Allah that war is deception,’ one senior leader said, according to a FBI transcript. ‘Deceive, camouflage, pretend that you’re leaving while you’re walking that way. Deceive your enemy.’
Deceive they did.
As Hamas found its footing, associates poured money into its coffers and it worked until the network was picked apart by American authorities.
‘THE FAÇADE’: PRO-HAMAS CHARITIES BUSTED
Federal agents raided and locked down the headquarters of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation of Relief and Development (HLF) on suspicion of fundraising for Hamas in 2001.
Seven years later, the Justice Department secured convictions against HLF and its leadership for illegally funneling approximately $12.4 million to the terrorists.
Five HLF leaders were sentenced to a collective 180 years in federal prison and the faux charity was shuttered.
To date – it is the largest successful terrorism financing prosecution in U.S. history. But not everyone allegedly involved in the scheme faced justice.
Salah Sarsour – the furniture store owner whose name appears on an invitation for a Tlaib campaign event in Milwaukee in July of 2018 – allegedly helped raise money for HLF, according to a 2001 FBI memorandum.
He was never charged.
Then there’s Abdelbaset Hamayel, whose name is listed alongside Jaber’s as a co-host on an official ‘Rashia Tlaib For Congress’ invitation to a meet and greet at the Jerusalem Banquet restaurant in Bridgeview, Illinois in July 2018. (Above, names of Hamayel and Jaber are underlined)
Abdelbaset Hamayel (left) and Salah Sarsour (right) are seen together in a Facebook post from June 28, 2021
Tlaib’s defenders claim it is unreasonable to expect her to know the background of all the guests at her campaign events or the 45,000 donors named on her Federal Election Commission records. That’s fair enough. Yet she certainly should know the identities of her co-hosts.
And HLF’s pro-Hamas mission allegedly carried on.
The U.S. Treasury Department claimed that HLF simply dissolved and reconstituted itself another as another charity called KindHearts, which was based in Ohio.
‘KindHearts is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the façade of charitable giving,’ Treasury officials claimed when they froze KindHearts assets in 2006.
At the time, KindHearts’ representative[i] in Illinois and Wisconsin was Abdelbaset Hamayel – another Tlaib campaign co-host.
KindHearts challenged the order shut down, and a court in 2010 ruled the government action was unconstitutional as insufficient time was given to allow KindHearts to challenge the decision.
In 2011 KindHearts settled with the government, denying involvement in terrorism financing but agreeing to dissolve their organization.
The alleged network was increasingly exposed. And the murder of an American blew it wide open and into a U.S. courtroom.
ISLAMIC CHARITY FOUND GUILTY IN MURDER OF AMERICA
David Boim was born in Brooklyn, New York, but on May 13, 1996, he was living in Jerusalem and studying at a yeshiva.
It was the day he was murdered.
The 17-year-old student was waiting with friends at a bus stop near Beit El in the West Bank when two Hamas terrorists opened fire on the crowd from a moving car.
One student, Yair Greenbaum, was hit in the chest and wounded. David was shot in the head and killed.
David’s devastated parents took their grief to civil court and, in 2000, after years of preparation they brought a case under a 1992 law that permits American victims to sue anyone providing material support to terror groups.
Named as a defendant in that lawsuit was the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), which for decades had operated out of a nondescript office in a bland strip mall in the Chicago suburb of Palos Hills.
Its benign appearance belied the allegation that it was founded in the 1980s by Hamas’s de facto foreign minister, Mousa Abu Marzook.
In the lawsuit, Rafeeq Jaber – the man sitting front row at Tlaib’s 2018 hookah lounge campaign event – was identified as IAP’s president.
Jaber, at the time, denied any involvement in Boim’s death. ‘We are guilty because we happen to be Muslims, happen to be Palestinians,’ he said. ‘This is a sad day for justice.’
David Boim (above) was born in Brooklyn, New York, but on May 13, 1996, he was living in Jerusalem and studying at a yeshiva. It was the day he was murdered.
David’s devastated parents (above) took their grief to civil court and, in 2000, after years of preparation they brought a case under a 1992 law that permits American victims to sue anyone providing material support to terror groups.
A federal judge saw it differently and found IAP and its co-defendants legally responsible for the murder of David Boim, because they helped finance the terrorists.
IAP and its co-defendants were ordered to pay the Boim family $156 million in damages, marking the first decision of its kind under the anti-terrorism law.
Only IAP didn’t pay up.
Instead, the group closed its doors – or at least it claimed to.
According to a number of antiterror experts, like former U.S. Treasury Department analyst Jonathan Schanzer, IAP merely changed its name and re-emerged under another – American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
That claim is currently the focus of an on-going lawsuit as the Boims allege that AMP is the alter ego of IAP.
And if the Boim’s contention is proven true, it would be truly disturbing – the least of which for Democrats – because AMP has thrown its weight behind several Democratic members of Congress, including Rashida Tlaib.
TLAIB’S UNREPENTANT, PRO-HAMAS CAMPAIGN CO-HOST
On Wednesday, November 15th, Jonathan Schanzer appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee and took the government to task for its failure to act on his warnings about Hamas financers in America.
After all, Schanzer, who worked as a terrorism finance analyst for the Treasury Department from 2004 to 2007, has testified on this topic twice before.
‘The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and KindHearts for Charitable Development were three organizations implicated in financing Hamas between 2001 and 2011,’ Schanzer cautioned lawmakers. ‘Many of them have gravitated to a new organization called American Muslims for Palestine.’
Despite Schanzer’s previous testimonies delivered seven years ago, AMP’s influence has only grown. The group’s lobbying arm now openly seeks to influence – and elect – members of Congress.
Tlaib has spoken at multiple AMP events, including a 2019 annual gala in Chicago, a 2020 chapter meeting in St. Louis, Missouri and a range of online gatherings. Prominent AMP members have aided her congressional campaign.
Salah Sarsour – that alleged Holy Land fundraiser – is now identified as an AMP National Board Member and the director of the group’s tax-exempt charitable arm.
Abdelbaset Hamayel – that purported KindHearts point man – is identified as AMP’s Executive Director on the Facebook page of AMP’s Chicago chapter and is reportedly active in the organization.
Tlaib has spoken at multiple AMP events, including a 2019 annual gala in Chicago, a 2020 chapter meeting in St. Louis, Missouri and a range of online gatherings.
Just two weeks after Hamas’ October 7th terrorist attacks in Israel, AMP’s representatives were back on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers on their annual ‘Advocacy Day’. Rashida Tlaib’s picture was featured on their flier. (Above, Tlaib shown in lower right of flier)
Finally, AMP’s AJP Educational Foundation lists Rafeeq Jaber – the former president of IAP – as its tax preparer on recent IRS filings.
To this day, Jaber works out of that same nondescript office building in Palos Hills. When contacted by phone, Jaber told DailyMail.com that he was exasperated by repeated calls to condemn Hamas and refused to do so.
‘Whatever Hamas did, it does not justify this,’ he said, referring to the October 7 massacre and Israeli’s invasion of Gaza.
Asked if he would condemn both Hamas and Israel, Jaber again demurred. ‘Condemnation is not going to change anything,’ he stated and defended his support for Tlaib.
AMP, for its part, recently moved its headquarters from Palos Hills, Illinois to Falls Church, Virginia, where it has attracted the attention of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.
Miyares is currently investigating allegations that AMP, ‘may have used funds raised for impermissible purposes under state law, including benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations.’
AMP and Tlaib, however, don’t appear to be fazed by the attention.
When contacted for comment by DailyMail.com, Congresswoman Tlaib’s office did not answer.
And just two weeks after Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, AMP’s representatives were back on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers on their annual ‘Advocacy Day’.
Rashida Tlaib’s picture was featured on their flier.