US lawmakers demand probe into Seattle based Palestine Chronicle's connections to Hamas and Iran

Three separate U.S. House committees issued a joint memo last week, urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate a Seattle-based online news outlet called the Palestine Chronicle for its alleged connections to the Hamas terror organization and the Iranian regime.

U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, (R-KY) and Education & Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, (R-NC) wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland accusing the Palestine Chronicle and the People Media Project – a U.S. tax-exempt foundation in Washington State – of violating multiple laws.

"We write to urge you to investigate The Palestine Chronicle and People Media Project for violating the law, particularly for providing material support to a known terrorist organization in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, for filing a false tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206, and for failing to file a valid tax return and pay estimated taxes in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203," the letter read.

The letter cites the Palestine Chronicle’s employment relationship with “journalist” Abdullah al-Jamal, who held three Israelis – Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomo Ziv – captive in his Gazan home for eight months following their abduction on Oct. 7. Al-Jamal was also the spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza Labor Ministry until he was killed in early June during the daring Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rescue operation to save the three hostages' lives.

The Republican lawmakers also accused the Palestine Chronicle and the People Media Project of having ties to Iran, noting that the outlet's founder and editor-in-chief, Ramzy Baroud, "formerly served as an editor and executive for Al Jazeera and has also written for Kayhan International, an outlet that reportedly is funded by Iran’s supreme leader. Notably, Kayhan International has had six of its published writers appear on state-controlled sites that were previously seized in 2020 by the U.S. government after finding that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unlawfully used them to further a global covert influence campaign."

The lawmakers cited a federal statute stating that anyone under U.S. jurisdiction providing "material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life."

"Based on the facts available, the Palestine Chronicle and the People Media Project appear to be at the very least complicit in supporting Hamas, and at worst full-fledged financiers of terrorism," the letter stated.

The Republican committee leaders also accused the People Media Project of falsifying information on tax forms, stating, “We strongly urge the DOJ to utilize its authority to investigate the Palestine Chronicle and the People Media Group for violating federal law, including laws prohibiting material support for terrorism and the filing of false tax returns.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Smith said, "I am deeply concerned that an organization enjoying tax-exempt status in the United States not only employed a journalist who worked with Hamas to hold innocent Israelis hostage but also chose an editor-in-chief who appears to have links to Iran and potentially its terror financing network. Any individual or organization attempting to manipulate our tax code in furtherance of terrorism must be punished."

Smith's Ways and Means Committee opened a separate investigation into the media outlet and its related nonprofit last month, calling on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to revoke the People Media Project's tax-exempt status.

For months during Israel’s war with Hamas, al-Jamal’s articles were read around the world, and even after he was discovered to be a Hamas operative, they continued to circulate on the Internet as journalistic “reporting.”

In a statement after the hostage rescue operation, the IDF and Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, Mossad, informed reporters: “It can be confirmed that Abdullah al-Jamal was an operative of the Hamas terrorist organization, who kept the hostages Almog Meir, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv in his family home in Nuseirat [Gaza]…Abdullah’s family home held hostages alongside family members. This is further proof that the Hamas terrorist organization uses the civilian population as a human shield.”

Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based global media company, continues to post a 2019 article by al-Jamal on its website. In the article, he discusses “tales of torture from Israel’s prisons” and provides statistics and interviews with individuals accusing Israel of allegedly conducting heinous acts of torture.

In the United States, the Green Party has kept an image on its website of the devastation in Gaza, which it claims is the result of Israeli operations. The image was provided by al-Jamal.

Universities and online booksellers have also maintained the “reporting” provided by the former Hamas operative, making it available for readers and news consumers.

Amazon continues to sell the book, “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons,” which includes interviews conducted by al-Jamal with individuals claiming to have experienced horrific methods of Israeli torture.

The Library of Congress continues to retain some articles from the Palestine Chronicle on its site, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) continues to list the Palestine Chronicle as a “recommended” source for understanding the “Israel and Palestine conflict,” linking to its webpage from its official university library website.

The prestigious British newspaper, The Guardian, has cited information in the Palestine Chronicle over the years, and even after al-Jamal was revealed to be a Hamas terrorist, The Guardian has not removed the links.

Almog Meir, one of al-Jamal's hostages, filed a lawsuit this month against the Palestine Chronicle’s chief officers for aiding, abetting and materially supporting “Hamas and its operative and spokesperson Abdullah al-Jamal by employing him as a correspondent and platforming his reports.”

Just hours before Meir’s rescue, his father died of cardiac arrest after months of grief and anguish over his son’s abduction, making Meir’s long-awaited reunion with his family a bittersweet occasion.