Anne Crowell Brandeis Blog May 16, 2016 On Thursday, Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), testified before the House Homeland Security Committee’s Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee about a troubling connection between past financing for terrorism and current support for the BDS movement. Schanzer explained to the members of the subcommittee that research by FDD revealed that several individuals who previously worked for or on behalf of three charitable organizations which were implicated by the federal government for financing Hamas are now working for or on behalf of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). AMP, Schanzer said, is “a leading orchestrator of the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.” In Schanzer’s previous testimony on this subject in April before two subcommittees of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he highlighted AMP’s influence in bringing BDS to college campuses, stating, “AMP is arguably the most important sponsor and organizer for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which is the most visible arm of the BDS campaign on campuses in the United States.” Schanzer informed members of the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee last Thursday that ongoing research since his previous testimony had revealed an additional former employee at one of the charities who is currently working with AMP, bringing the total to eight individuals. While Schanzer made it clear that at this time there is no indication of any current illegal activity by AMP, he described FDD’s findings as “deeply concerning” and characterized the situation as “a transparency issue at its core.” He urged oversight by the IRS to increase accountability, and suggested that the US could look to the UK’s Charity Commission as a model accountability program.