Billionaire-backed philanthropy network vows no future grants to Palestinian terror-tied group

EXCLUSIVE — A major philanthropy network bankrolled by a pair of Texas billionaires is vowing to no longer steer grants to a “progressive” charity dropped by four payment processors this year over its Palestinian terror ties.

Arnold Ventures, an LLC with an annual giving of $231 million that supports over 3,200 projects in various policy areas, including criminal justice and healthcare, “will not provide grants in the future to Alliance for Global Justice,” an Arnold Ventures spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. The group, which disburses the wealth of its co-founders, ex-Enron executive and retired hedge fund manager John Arnold, and his wife, former Cobalt International Energy lawyer Laura Arnold, donated $5,000 to the terror-linked charity in 2020, tax forms show.

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The announcement marks the first time a grantmaker has publicly said it will step away from the Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice, which has come under congressional scrutiny and legal pressure for its connections to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group. Arnold Ventures asserted earlier this year that the $5,000 was an “employee-directed contribution” after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 “to support racial justice initiatives” through the limited liability corporation’s “employee charitable giving program.”

“Arnold Ventures does not work on foreign policy,” the organization previously said. In 2019, Laura and John Arnold restructured their private foundation, donor-advised fund, and advocacy arm to be housed under the newly formed LLC.

Alliance for Global Justice fiscally sponsors the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, an Israeli-designated terror coalition that has shared staffers with the PFLP and rallied to support Hamas after its deadly October attack against the Jewish state of Israel. The Minnesota-based Deluxe, as well as PayPal, Stripe, and Salsa Labs, have all booted the Arizona group off their payment processing platforms after multiple Washington Examiner reports. Meanwhile, the Democratic software platform ActBlue in September removed the fundraising account for Alliance for Global Justice’s Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel — a West Bank-based project accused of terror ties.

As for Samidoun, the coalition facilitated funds between the PFLP with Syria and Lebanon, while one of its activists purportedly trained with Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist faction, according to Israel’s government. Collectif Palestine Vaincra, another anti-Israel group in Samidoun’s coalition that lists a partnership with the PFLP on its website, fundraised online in early 2023 with the help of Alliance for Global Justice, resulting in Zachor Legal Institute, a pro-Israel think tank, accusing the Arizona group in an IRS complaint of providing “material support” to terrorism.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Arnold Ventures was one of many groups that approved grants in 2020 to Alliance for Global Justice, an “anti-capitalist” offshoot of the pro-Sandinista Nicaragua Network that backed a socialist regime in Central America. John Arnold has earned the ire of conservatives in recent years for pouring millions of dollars into bail reform, including in Indiana, prompting Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) to blast “out-of-state billionaires” for pushing “a liberal, soft-on-crime agenda” in the Hoosier State.

Moreover, John Arnold has come under “censorship” criticism from the Right for his LLC, which identifies as nonpartisan, funding groups aiming to thwart “disinformation” and “misinformation” online. However, the philanthropist has supported right-leaning issues related to pension reform and education, according to Capital Research Center, a conservative investigative think tank.

While Arnold Ventures made the proper decision in saying it won’t allow grants to go to Alliance for Global Justice, the LLC should never have approved the $5,000 in the first place, according to Victoria Coates, ex-deputy national security adviser for Middle East and North African affairs under former President Donald Trump.

“October was a wake-up call that exposed how money going into Palestinian causes, no matter how well-intentioned, potentially does fund terror,” Coates, now vice president for the Heritage Foundation’s national security and foreign policy institute, told the Washington Examiner.

Major left-wing donors to Alliance for Global Justice since 2019 have included the George Soros-backed Foundation to Promote Open Society, Tides Foundation, Tides Center, Ford Foundation, Borealis Philanthropy, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation, and ex-Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde, who has come under fire for playing a role in the online suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story.

Between 2020 and 2021, Alliance for Global Justice also raked in over $400,000 combined for projects from New Venture Fund and Windward Fund, tax forms show. The funds are managed by Arabella Advisors, the largest Democratic-linked dark money network in the United States, which is under investigation by Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb, a Democrat, for potentially violating federal law.

Beyond Alliance for Global Justice, the breakout of the Israel-Gaza war has led to scrutiny over how groups in the U.S., including those benefiting from tax-exempt status, are expressing staunch support for Hamas.

Senate Republicans this week called on PayPal to shut down the account for Black Lives Matter Chicago, which has since tried to walk back its move to share an “I stand with Palestine” graphic on social media depicting a Hamas terrorist in a paraglider. ActBlue allows the charity BLM Grassroots, which called the Hamas attack a “desperate act of self-defense,” to fundraise through its services, the Washington Examiner reported.

Over 1,400 Israelis and 32 Americans have been killed since the initial attacks against the Jewish state on Oct. 7, according to Israeli and U.S. officials. Hamas alleges over 3,700 are dead in Gaza and on Friday released two American hostages.

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Hamas is believed to have taken around 200 hostages from Israel.

Alliance for Global Justice did not return a request for comment. “If they come for Samidoun … they have come for all of us,” the charity said recently.