Congress warns left-wing Israeli opposition group over alleged funding by Biden admin

Blue and White Future has to show if it received direct or indirect funding from the Biden administration, which could be illegal, the letter stated.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Two congressional committees have sent a second warning letter to an Israeli political opposition group asking whether it received direct or indirect funding from the previous administration, which could be illegal.

The House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees were not satisfied with the answers given by Blue and White Future (BWF) in response to their first request, which was sent in March.

The NGO provides financial, logistic and other support to several groups that demonstrate regularly against the duly elected, right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It was especially active in helping those protesting the government’s attempt in 2022-2023 to legislate judicial reform.

The BWF chairman, Orni Petruschka, was one of the leaders of what was dubbed the Kaplan protests after the name of the Tel Aviv street where hundreds of thousands gathered on Saturday nights for over a year.

The March letter had demanded documents “relating to funds that Blue White Future reportedly received from non-governmental organizations that were originally disbursed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department during the Biden-Harris administration,” the June 30 missive stated.

While BWF responded that it had not received federal grant funding, even indirectly, it did not provide documentation to support its contention, the current letter said.

This concerned the committees, the letter noted, because they had reports in hand that MEPDN (Middle East Peace Dialogue Network), an NGO that is a beneficiary of USAID funding, provided BWF with some $4 million in 2023.

According to NGO Monitor, MEPDN provides funding for several Israeli pro-Palestinian groups, such as IfNotNow and Women Wage Peace, all of which are fierce critics of the current coalition in Jerusalem.

MEPDN also receives funding itself from other anti-Israel NGOs supported by USAID and the State Department, such as Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA).

The March letter was sent to six Israeli and American nonprofits, including RPA and MEPDN, in an attempt to learn whether the Biden administration had “directed American taxpayer money to certain Israeli entities in a manner intended to undermine Israel’s democratically elected government” through the huge protests against judicial reform.

The most recent missive gave Blue White Future until July 14 to “produce the remaining material,” since the group “has asserted no privilege protecting the material or persuasive reason for its noncompliance.”