Organizations accuse the Department of Education of channeling tens of millions of taxpayer dollars toward virulent antisemitic and anti-American groups promoting terror at home and abroad.

By World Israel News Staff

A report by the Americans Against Antisemitism organization, founded in 2019 by former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, reveals that the U.S. government – mainly the New York Department of Education – has been handing out millions of taxpayers’ dollars to groups linked to radical Islamists.

The report lists at least seven terror-linked organizations that have collected a total of about $23 million from state coffers since 2013.

According to Americans Against Antisemitism, “Some organizations that received millions in taxpayer dollars have problematic associations and agendas that require heightened scrutiny to ensure New Yorkers aren’t funding anti-American and anti-Jewish hatred in our own backyard.”

Hikind called on Governor Hochul to “immediately look into this alarming report, conduct a thorough investigation into its allegations, and cut funding where appropriate.”

“With 1.1 million Jewish residents of New York City and 3 million statewide, it’s unconscionable that our great state is potentially funding the seeding of hateful attitudes at a time of skyrocketing anti-Jewish hate crimes. We cannot and will not allow for antisemitism to be condemned with one hand while funding it with the other,” he said.

According to Focus on Western Islamism, one of the institutions funded by the city was in fact banned in the United Arab Emirates for espousing terror.

“New York taxpayers have given the Muslim American Society (MAS) of Upper New York $2.5 million since January 2013. In 2004, federal prosecutors said MAS’s national organization ‘was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.’ The UAE designated MAS as a terror organization in 2014,” the report says.

“Other funding recipients include a number of Islamist school including Al Madrasa Al Islamiya, a religious school in Brooklyn, which has received over $1.6 million,” it continues. The school’s curriculum includes a book that extolls the killing and enslaving of Islam’s enemies.

Furthermore, “the state has also given more than $800,000 to Al-Mamoor School in Fresh Meadows, which promotes the teachings of Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, who has defended the Taliban and called for stoning adulterers and killing homosexuals…

“Al-Ihsan Academy in Queens is another recipient of public funds, receiving more than $5.6 million since 2013. Last October, the school hosted a lecture by Deobandi Islamist Shaikh Shafayat Mohamed. Mohamed currently directs the Darul Uloom Islamic Institute in Florida and has described most Jews and Christians as ‘perverted transgressors’ and called Jews ‘apes and swine.'”

The report states that the Darul Uloom center has produced Dirty Bomber Jose Padilla, a student of Shafayat Mohamed, as well as other renowned terrorists including al-Qaeda Global Operations Chief Adnan el-Shukrijumah. The center’s Arabic teacher, Imran Mandhai, along with mosque members Hakki Aksoy and Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, planned to blow up different South Florida institutions, including local power stations, Jewish businesses, and a National Guard weapons depot.

The article describes how the state has granted $10.3 million to the Al-Madinah School in Brooklyn, which maintains close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated MAS and Muslims Giving Back (MGB), an organization cofounded by Asad Dandia. Dandia has been investigated by New York police for statements supporting violent jihad, including praise of former al-Qaeda commander Anwar al-Awlaki.

Another such group receiving state funding has been suspected as acting as a front for the Iranian regime.

The report quotes New York Councilwoman Inna Vernikov as saying that “there should not be a single dollar spent by American cities or states on organizations that brainwash children and the public with anti-American propaganda that promotes terrorism and incites violence.

“Funding organizations with terror ties may be seen as providing material support to terrorists, and that should not be tolerated by anyone, especially New York’s DOE, where a majority of the state funding comes from,” she stated.

Americans Against Antisemitism is urging NY Governor Kathy Hochul and the comptroller’s office to investigate the allegations immediately and cut funding to supporters of terror.

The post Report: U.S. taxpayers funding radical Islamist organizations appeared first on World Israel News.

“The Democratic party turns its back on its friends, like Israel – the Biden administration, right now, in policy after policy. I’m just tired. I’ve had enough.”

By World Israel News Staff

“It’s over, it’s finished.” Former New York Assemblyman-turned-activist Dov Hikind announced his defection from the Democratic party on Thursday in a tweet that included his wife, Shani, agreeing wholeheartedly with the decision.

“I have been a lifelong Democrat — my family, my parents. But that’s over.  That’s finished. I have decided to register as a Republican,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has become so radicalized, so radical, run by the radicals, that people who are moderates or conservative Democrats are not welcomed in the Democratic Party, and I’ve had enough.

“The Democratic party turns its back on its friends, like Israel – the Biden administration, right now, in policy after policy. I’m just tired. I’ve had enough.

“It took a long, long time, but I am delighted to join the Republican Party,” Hikind added.

“This is about sending a message — a message to the Biden administration, a message to the Democratic Party. We’re losing the American people because you are not representing our values. You are not representing the Democratic Party that my parents were so proud of.”

Hikind’s wife chimed in, saying, “I totally feel that this is the right move…This is not a party that represents our values… how we feel about America…”

The video ended with a strong hint that Hikind, who founded Americans Against Antisemitism in 2019 a year after leaving office, will run again.

IT’S OFFICIAL: My wife and I have switched our party affiliation from Democrat to Republican!

Ppl have long been asking, “Dov, when are you gonna leave the Democratic Party?”

Well, the time has come bc the Dems have turned their back on Jews & Israel, so it’s officially done! pic.twitter.com/VAlGaaALDO

— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) July 20, 2023

The post ‘I’ve had enough’: Former Democratic lawmaker defects to Republican party, hints about running for office appeared first on World Israel News.

At New York City Council Hearing, Joseph Borgen’s father criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, noting the assailant said he would do it again.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

The father of a Jewish man who was brutally assaulted and pepper sprayed in a 2021 antisemitic hate crime has criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday for lightly punishing his son’s assailants.

Joseph Borgen was returning home from a pro-Israel event in New York City in 2021 when five men shouting antisemitic slurs, including 23-year-old Waseem Awawdeh, attacked him for being Jewish. Awawdeh repeatedly hit Borgen, who was wearing a kippah, with a metal crutch.

Despite the severity of the incident, in January, DA Bragg offered Awawdeh, who reportedly said he would commit a similar act if given the chance, just six months in jail and five years probation. He is currently free on $10,000 bail.

“They have film of this in black and white from people in the street and Times Square, it’s an open and shut case, and DA Bragg is just schlepping the case along with no solution,” the elder Borgen said during a judiciary committee hearing at the New York City Council. “One fellow, Waseem Awawdeh, was hitting my son with crutches and was offered a sweetheart deal, didn’t take it, yet he was let out on probation.”

MUST WATCH: Joseph Borgen’s father tells @JudiciaryGOP about DA Bragg’s release of the antisemitic assailant who savagely beat his son –and even warned he would do it again. pic.twitter.com/QEw0XPhQYr

— Rep. Barry Moore (@RepBarryMoore) April 17, 2023

Borgen added that Awadeh was allegedly involved in a road rage incident that violated the conditions of his bail.

“Bragg brought him again, nothing, just ‘go out and behave yourself,’ this will just embolden him and he doesn’t care,” Borgen continued. He also criticized Democratic lawmakers US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has arrested four other assailants — Mahmoud Musa, Faisal Elezzi, Mohammed Said Othman, and a 14-year-old — connected to the Borgen assault.

New York and New Jersey combined for nearly 1,000 antisemitic incidents in 2022, seeing the first and third most in all 50 states, according to an annual audit by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). New York led the nation with 580 incidents, a 34% change from 2019, when there were 430.

Other data complied by Americans Against Antisemitism, a US based group founded in 2019, shows that Hasidic and Orthodox Jews in New York City are overwhelmingly represented in the area’s hate crime statistics, being targeted in 94 percent of all reported.

The violence has prompted eight major nonprofits from New York and New Jersey to create a supra-regional group for sharing and receiving information about threats to Jewish communities in the area.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Father of antisemitic hate crime victim pleads for justice, slams Manhattan district attorney appeared first on World Israel News.

ChatGPT spouts objectively false information, claiming that PA President Mahmoud Abbas condemns terror and that most Palestinians don’t support terror attack against Jews, Americans Against Antisemitism revealed.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

AI chatbot ChatGPT has taken the world by storm in recent weeks, thanks to its ability to write code, produce essays, and answer questions almost instantly, dramatically reducing the time it would take a human to do these tasks.

The online program, which allows users to instruct the tool to carry out tasks or answer queries, doesn’t produce perfect results, and its creator warns that ChatGPT still has some kinks to work out.

That was clear after Israel Bitton, on behalf of the NGO Americans Against Antisemitism, decided to test the neutrality of ChatGPT regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Me: Explain why Palestinians celebrate successful terror attacks against Jews.

chatGPT: That’s a blanket statement… “Such actions are strongly condemned by the MAJORITY of Palestinians.” Plus, here are some platitudes too…

Me: Okay, I’ll revise my query to be more precise… pic.twitter.com/dUwIEOMIMq

— Israel B. Bitton (@IsraelBitton) February 12, 2023

Bitton observed that ChatGPT repeatedly denied and defended the Palestinian Authority’s support for terror, giving answers that were objectively false regarding the PA’s complicity and downplaying the widespread support within the Palestinian population for attacks on Jews.

ChatGPT scolded Bitton after he asked the bot to explain why Palestinians celebrate deadly attacks against Jews, responding that he was “making a blanket statement” and asserting that “such actions are strongly condemned by the majority of Palestinians.”

This information is factually incorrect, as numerous surveys have consistently found that the majority of Palestinians do support terror attacks against Jews.

After Bitton pointed this out, ChatGPT responded that “you’re right that polls indicate a ‘significant percentage of Palestinians support the use of terrorism as a means’ but it’s all very complex.”

Bitton also questioned ChatGPT’s statement that PA President Mahmoud Abbas – who has vowed never to halt pay-for-slay stipends to terrorists and their families – has strongly condemned terror.

ChatGPT provided a quote from Abbas reportedly saying that “such acts go against the morals and culture of our religion” after a 2016 terror attack.

Bitton plugged that quote into Google and could find no record of Abbas making that remark. ChatGPT admitted that the “specific quote” it provided mysteriously “could not be found.”

“If this is [ChatGPT’s] view of history , it’ll only prove itself to be a harbinger of a Total Disinformation Age wherein facts are malleable & political interests determine factive reality!” Bitton wrote on Twitter, after posting multiple screenshots of his conversation with the bot.

One Twitter user responded to Bitton by noting that “AI doesn’t have bias, it’s dumb and simply repeats the data what it’s been trained on.”

“Right, the AI reflects the developers and the datasets ingested, all of which are naturally biased unless corrected for,” Bitton replied.

ChatGPT has already been revealed by right-wing activists to have a left-wing perspective on numerous political issues.

“We know that ChatGPT has shortcomings around bias, and are working to improve it,” the program’s creator, Sam Altman, wrote in a Tweet in early February.

“We are working to improve the default settings to be more neutral, and also to empower users to get our systems to behave in accordance with their individual preferences within broad bounds. This is harder than it sounds and will take us some time to get right.”

The post ‘Neutral’ ChatGPT lies about Palestinian terror, excuses PA complicity appeared first on World Israel News.