The Biden administration awarded enormous sums of taxpayer dollars to an anti-Israel nonprofit organization that has pushed fake news about the Israel-Hamas war, in an effort to fight the spread of disinformation in the Middle East.
Federal spending records show that on Oct. 1 the State Department gave $573,000 to MENAACTION Inc., a Virginia-based nonprofit, to protect "media and society against disinformation" and train journalists in Jordan to identify "fake news."
A founder of MENAACTION, Chris Aboukhaled, pushed Hamas’s claim that Israel bombed Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, even though the building was damaged by the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group.
MENAACTION's other co-founder, Mohammed Abu Dalhoum, who suggested that Israel was behind the bombing, said that Israel's military response to Hamas was not in "self-defense" and accused the Jewish state of engaging in "genocide."
According to reports, MENAACTION advocates for "the rights of Middle Eastern youth and the Middle East in general." The entity has been highly critical of the Israeli government and of what it refers to as the "Israeli occupying forces" in Gaza and the West Bank.
Dalhoum suggested that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken could not serve as an impartial mediator in negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders because of his Jewish ethnicity.
The grants to the group raise concerns about the administration's ability to curtail disinformation in the Middle East. Details of MENAACTION's State Department grant are unclear.
The support for anti-Israel groups is nothing new to the Biden administration, given past history.
Recently, the White House tapped the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to serve on its "national strategy to counter anti-Semitism."
The White House removed references to CAIR's role on the task force this week after the leader of the organization, Nihad Awad, said he was "happy to see" Hamas fighters attack Israel.
The State Department also awarded around $260,000 to Al-Quds University, a Palestinian university Al-Quds University in the West Bank that hailed Hamas as "righteous martyrs," and the Al-Quds Open University, another Palestinian university, which praised Hamas activity in the Gaza Strip.
The Department of Homeland Security granted millions of dollars to mosques like the California-based Masjid al-Ansar Mosque, which has called for the destruction of Jews and Israel.
Following the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas, various left-wing progressive groups have engaged in spreading false information regarding Israel's military conduct in the war, accusing the Jewish state of committing "war crimes.”
Despite the international condemnation from left-wing groups and various governments throughout the world, the Israeli government says it will not stop until Hamas is destroyed.
Related Story: New U.S. National Strategy Plan to Combat Antisemitism Shaped by American Muslim Group with Antisemitic History
