A US Congressional committee said Thursday that it was investigating a far-left socialist group that has led anti-Israel protests in New York City for alleged ties to the Chinese government.
The US House Committee on Ways and Means sent a letter to the People’s Forum, a prominent activist group, saying the organization may have overstepped free speech protections and abused its tax-exempt status by peddling foreign propaganda.
The People’s Forum decried the probe as a “desperate attempt to silence our work and crush dissent.”
The group is part of a network linked to Neville Roy Singham, an American tech mogul who is believed to live in China. Singham’s backing of the network was exposed in a New York Times report in August 2023 that said it had “tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.” Several reports since then have further mapped out Singham’s ties to the activist network.
US Representative Jason Smith, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to Manolo De Los Santos, the head of the People’s Forum, demanding that the group provide documents clarifying its relationship with Singham. The committee has jurisdiction over taxation and other fields, including tax-exempt organizations such as the People’s Forum, a registered nonprofit.
The letter highlighted a protest led by the group in Times Square on October 8, 2023 — the day after the Hamas invasion of Israel — that celebrated the attack, and public statements from the group justifying the atrocities.
“The People’s Forum has been responsible for an endless amount of chaos and disruption around the country,” Smith said in the letter.
Smith said that, while it is legal for tax-exempt groups to receive large donations from a private citizen, the People’s Forum may have violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires foreign agents to register with the Department of Justice and disclose their affiliations.
Some of the People’s Forum rhetoric may have violated First Amendment protections, which do not cover “fighting words or true threats,” the letter said. The statement cited De Los Santos speaking to Columbia University activists about “Zionist” university administrators who “want to be more like their masters in Israel,” hours before protesters stormed a campus building last year.
The House committee demanded the People’s Forum provide all documents and communications between its members and Singham; documents between group members and foreign entities; a list of donors to the group; and People’s Forum grant recipients that are located outside the US.
The letter also demanded the People’s Forum share a list of all organizations it provides with fiscal sponsorships — an arrangement that allows a nonprofit to collect tax-exempt donations for groups that do not have nonprofit status and is widely used by anti-Israel activist groups.
The letter gave the People’s Forum a September 18 deadline to comply.
The group confirmed on Thursday that it had received Smith’s letter, saying the lawmaker was “targeting our organization for our work against genocide.”
“This is a desperate attempt to silence our work and crush dissent. We will not be intimidated. This is not just an attack on The People’s Forum, but an assault on the fundamental rights of all people of conscience in the United States,” the People’s Forum said.
The investigation came after Jewish community advocates pushed for increased transparency for nonprofit organizations, including the Singham network, arguing that opaque funding allows for foreign influence in the US.
The Coalition for a Safer Web, a Jewish community group, in a report earlier this year, argued for action against the Singham network and for more financial transparency for nonprofits.
US Representative Ritchie Torres has also pushed for action, citing “genocidal” anti-Israel rhetoric from the People’s Forum.
Funding linking the groups is difficult to track because donors can contribute to nonprofits through funds that shield their identity, but the People’s Forum acknowledged its support from Singham in 2021.
The letter came amid escalating pressure on anti-Israel activist groups for alleged malfeasance by members of Congress.
On Wednesday, US Senator Tom Cotton called for an FBI investigation into the Palestinian Youth Movement, an activist group that has worked with the People’s Forum.
Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pushed for a probe after a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement called on activists to target the supply chain for the US F-35 weapons system at an anti-Israel conference over the weekend.
That conference, called the People’s Conference for Palestine, was led by the People’s Forum, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and 10 other activist groups, including ANSWER Coalition, another far-left group that is connected to the network.
The conference highlighted the network’s connections to the broader left-wing activist sphere. Speakers included US Representative Rashida Tlaib, activist Linda Sarsour, founder of Students for Justice in Palestine Hatem Bazian, and representatives of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace and student activists at Columbia University.
Some members of Congress have been accused by critics of launching agenda-driven investigations claiming nefarious funding sources of progressive groups based on little evidence or discredited conspiracies.
In addition to government pressure, Jewish groups have assailed nonprofit funding through lawsuits.
Congressional lawmakers have also demanded that Singham provide documents related to the activist groups, but have been unable to reach him because he resides outside the US. The People’s Forum, however, is based in New York City and could face repercussions if it does not comply with the investigation.