The U.S. Treasury officially moved to sanction Addameer, a sham Palestinian charity, accusing the West Bank–based NGO of long-standing ties to the PFLP terrorist group. The designation warns that Addameer, which claims to support Palestinian political prisoners, “has long supported and is affiliated” with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Addameer cultivated close relationships with elite American universities. Its 2019 annual report boasted meetings “with its friends and partners,” including Columbia Law School and student groups like Students for Justice in Palestine. The charity “helped to organize an event by students from Columbia University shortly after their return from Palestine,” the report stated .
Harvard Law’s International Human Rights Clinic collaborated with Addameer in 2022 to submit a joint U.N. apartheid report, alleging Israel’s role in establishing “Jewish Israeli supremacy” and illegal land confiscations. Yale Law’s clinic followed suit, urging Israel to “immediately release Palestinian prisoners” in a U.N. appeal, while Cornell Law echoed that call .
Even beyond Ivy League circles, Addameer actively engaged campus audiences. It spoke at events hosted by University of Chicago student groups and Barnard and Columbia centers between 2018 and 2021. Yet funding institutions never responded to media inquiries.
Pro-Israel watchdog NGO Monitor lauded the Treasury’s move. President Gerald Steinberg said the designation “highlights the abuse of NGO frameworks by Palestinian terror groups” and pressures other governments to reconsider support. Israeli authorities had already branded Addameer a terrorist group in 2021, noting its “operations on behalf of the ‘Popular Front.’”
This action follows earlier sanctions against other front organizations like Samidoun, which Treasury had previously labelled a “sham charity” that funneled funds to the PFLP. That move underscored patterns of terror group exploitation of nonprofit networks.
