A Network Contagion Research Institute investigation says the Middle East Children’s Alliance received support from major progressive donors while sending millions of dollars abroad through increasingly opaque grants to organizations accused of ties to a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A California nonprofit promoted as a humanitarian organization for children in the Middle East is facing scrutiny over allegations that millions of dollars in foreign grants reached organizations with documented or alleged connections to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to a new investigation by the Network Contagion Research Institute.
The NCRI report, first detailed by the New York Post, identifies the Berkeley-based Middle East Children’s Alliance as a possible financial link between major progressive foundations, pro-Palestinian activist networks and overseas organizations accused of affiliations with the PFLP.
Writing Off America by yourNEWS Media
The PFLP is a Marxist-Leninist Palestinian organization founded by George Habash in 1967. The United States has designated it a foreign terrorist organization since 1997 and a specially designated global terrorist entity since 2001.
NCRI said its review found a recurring pattern of MECA grants to organizations with reported PFLP connections, along with overlapping personnel and longstanding coalition relationships. The institute cautioned that the funding structure could make it difficult for donors and activists in the United States to determine where money ultimately goes.
“The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) is a Berkeley, California–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Since the October 7, 2023 attacks, it has emerged as a critical U.S. charitable fundraising vehicle promoted across the pro-Palestinian activist ecosystem, including organizations within the Neville Roy Singham network, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and a range of progressive philanthropic institutions. As MECA’s public profile and fundraising accelerated, so too did questions regarding the destinations of its foreign grantmaking,” NCRI wrote.
The Middle East Children’s Alliance was founded in 1988 by husband-and-wife activists Barbara Lubin and Howard Levine. It says its mission is to provide humanitarian assistance to children in the Middle East and lists Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and academic Noam Chomsky among its advisory board members. The late poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou also previously served on the board.
According to NCRI, MECA reported approximately $35 million in foreign grants between fiscal years 2017 and 2025. Investigators traced $13.5 million in institutional contributions and found that about 67% moved through donor-advised funds or charitable platforms that do not publicly identify the original contributors. The 10 largest funding sources represented 70% of the contributions NCRI was able to trace.
“Between FY2017 and FY2025, MECA’s tax filings report approximately $35 million in foreign grant disbursements. This report identifies a persistent pattern of funding organizations with documented ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the United States designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997,” NCRI stated.
“It further documents personnel overlap between MECA and organizations affiliated with the PFLP, as well as longstanding organizational and coalition relationships suggesting these connections are structural rather than incidental. The structure may partially shield the extent of collaboration with the PFLP from activist networks in the United States who both raise money for MECA and ideologically support the PFLP,” the institute added.
MECA reported more than $18 million in revenue during fiscal 2024, while its foreign disbursements rose to approximately $10.7 million, roughly 4.5 times the previous year’s total. NCRI said the sharp increase was accompanied by declining transparency in the organization’s public disclosures.
More than 70% of MECA’s foreign grant entries were identified only as “community projects,” according to the report, preventing the public from determining the specific recipients or purposes of the money. The decline in detailed disclosures began in 2020, several years before the current Gaza war, and by 2025 all foreign grants carried generic descriptions, NCRI said.
“The convergence of these findings raises concerns about whether donors in the United States may be unknowingly donating to a group that ultimately benefits a foreign terrorist organization,” the report stated.
NCRI identified six longtime MECA partners it assessed as having PFLP affiliations and said those organizations gradually disappeared from public grant descriptions as questions about their connections intensified. The institute’s conceptual model traces money from donors and fundraising organizations through MECA and then to overseas groups accused of relationships with the PFLP and other militant organizations.
Among the organizations named in the report were the Union of Health Work Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, both based in the West Bank. Israel has designated both organizations as terrorist groups and accused them of directing money to the PFLP. Both organizations have denied those allegations.
Mona El-Farra, who previously served as deputy director of the Union of Health Work Committees, has overseen MECA’s humanitarian projects in Gaza, according to the charity’s website. NCRI described the personnel connection, combined with MECA’s previous financial support for UHWC, as evidence of an “overlapping, interconnected structure across organizations.”
“This is especially true given the fact that MECA has funded the UHWC, El-Farra’s former group,” the report stated.
NCRI also examined MECA’s connections to American activist coalitions and funding networks. Since the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the organization has been promoted by groups associated with Students for Justice in Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement and a network of organizations tied to Neville Roy Singham, an American technology millionaire based in China.
Singham-linked organizations have participated in the ShutItDown4Palestine campaign alongside Students for Justice in Palestine and other groups. The coalition helped organize protests, highway blockades and demonstrations at college campuses and other locations following the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The report characterizes the collaboration between Marxist organizations and Islamist-aligned activist networks as a “red-green alliance,” with MECA serving as one possible financial and organizational meeting point.
MECA also served on the founding committee of the ANSWER Coalition, a Marxist-Leninist antiwar organization established shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to NCRI. ANSWER later coordinated numerous demonstrations following the Oct. 7 attacks, while Lubin, who died last year, was described as a “leading ANSWER activist.”
Public filings show MECA paid ANSWER $1,000 for a stage rental in 2004. That same year, ANSWER figures helped establish the Party for Socialism and Liberation, an organization NCRI says receives funding connected to Singham and has also raised money for MECA.
The House Ways and Means Committee recently subpoenaed three nonprofits associated with Singham, including the People’s Forum and the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, after lawmakers said the organizations failed to provide a “single responsive document” concerning $39 million allegedly routed from Singham to U.S. groups.
The Justice Department has also opened an investigation into Singham’s personal financial dealings, according to reports. Singham did not respond to the New York Post’s request for comment.
The Treasury Department separately sanctioned Samidoun in 2024, designating it a specially designated global terrorist and alleging it functioned as an international fundraiser and front organization for the PFLP. Images from unrest in Los Angeles last summer also showed a participant wearing Hamas and PFLP insignia near a burning Waymo vehicle.
The report further identifies major charitable foundations and donor platforms among MECA’s financial supporters. Open Society Foundations, founded by billionaire George Soros, provided MECA with a total of $900,000 between 2017 and 2024, according to public filings. The Singham-linked People’s Forum donated $16,420 in 2024 following what was described as a humanitarian relief fundraiser.
Other named supporters included the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Tides-connected entities and organizations associated with Singham. NCRI said the use of donor-advised funds and intermediary platforms made it difficult to identify the original source of much of MECA’s support.
“America built the most generous philanthropic infrastructure in human history,” NCRI senior scientist Joel Finkelstein said.
“When American foundations bankroll groups tied to foreign terrorist organizations, when senators, members of Congress and prestigious academics endorse it … they’re turning the country’s own institutions against it,” he said.
MECA and Soros did not respond to the New York Post’s requests for comment.
The investigation was released amid broader federal scrutiny of activist financing and organizations accused of supporting violent or revolutionary movements in the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently addressed delegations from 65 countries while announcing an intensified effort targeting radical-left networks.
The State Department later issued a report examining far-left organizations allegedly operating through networks connected to Cuba and accused of encouraging unrest inside the United States.
Cuba Report by yourNEWS Media
NCRI’s findings do not establish that every donor to MECA knew of or intended to support organizations accused of PFLP ties. The report instead argues that the charity’s increasingly vague foreign-grant disclosures, personnel connections and relationships with activist organizations create a risk that American contributions could ultimately benefit entities associated with a designated terrorist organization.
Original article
Comments