Senators press IRS to investigate group tied to hostage taker in Gaza – Washington Examiner

Republican senators are pressing the IRS to coordinate with law enforcement agencies on investigating a nonprofit news outlet — telling the agency it should revoke the website’s tax-exempt status over it previously employing a since-killed Palestinian who held Israelis hostage in Gaza.

The little-known outlet, the Palestine Chronicle, is under the spotlight this week after the revelation that it published stories by Abdallah Aljamal, a former spokesman for the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Labor in Gaza who was listed as a correspondent and contributor for the website. Aljamal, who also wrote for the Qatari-backed Al Jazeera website, was killed by Israeli military officials during the rescue of three hostages Aljamal was holding captive.

“We are concerned that the Palestine Chronicle, an IRS tax-exempt organization, was actively employing an individual with apparent ties to and support for Hamas,” Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) and five other senators wrote in a letter on Wednesday to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.

“It is possible that this tax-exempt media outlet had no knowledge of its correspondent’s Hamas affiliation; however, given the organization’s recent attempts to cover up evidence of its ties to Aljamal, this seems unlikely, making them complicit in supporting terrorist propaganda on their platform,” the lawmakers told Werfel.

Palestinian gunmen take part in the funeral of Hamas local commander Mohammad Daraghmeh, 26, in the West Bank city of Tubas on Friday, April 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

The Palestine Chronicle is a registered nonprofit organization in the state of Washington, according to financial disclosures. Its parent group is called the People Media Project, the Washington Free Beacon reported, noting that the Palestine Chronicle shares ties to the murderous regime of Iran.

In their Wednesday letter, the senators also asked the IRS to prepare a report on its findings about the Palestine Chronicle and provide them to the Senate Finance Committee. The panel oversees taxation and the IRS.

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“While Aljamal may have played a journalist by day, the evidence clearly suggests he was, at a minimum, a Hamas collaborator, if not a full-time terror operative, responsible for keeping hostages captive,” the group of lawmakers, which also included Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rick Scott (R-FL), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), and Joni Ernst (R-IA), wrote in the letter.

“Accordingly, we urge the IRS, in coordination with other law enforcement agencies, to investigate the extent of the Palestine Chronicle’s knowledge of Abdallah Aljamal’s connections to Hamas and publishing of his stories while he held hostages, and to the greatest extent of the law, revoke the tax-exempt status of this organization that employed an individual who committed these violent, illegal, and terrorist acts,” they added in the letter.

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