WESPAC Foundation

The WESPAC Foundation’s backing of the BDS movement has brought it into conflict with the pro-Israel left, most notably the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which claims that the vast majority of WESPAC grants go to groups that promote allegedly “antisemitic language.” ⁶

Following the attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas in early October 2023, the ADL has attacked WESPAC and its funding recipients for their role in organizing pro-Palestinian civil unrest across the United States which has appeared to include pro-Hamas messaging. ⁷ WESPAC has attempted to portray itself as sympathetic to both Palestinian and Israeli losses in the conflict. ⁸

Advocacy

In June 2018, The WESPAC Foundation signed onto a letter to the New York State corrections authorities which expressed opposition to the practice of solitary confinement, equating it with “torture” and claiming that it disproportionately affects racial-minority groups. WESPAC joined dozens of mostly local activist groups, including a number of Christian and Jewish liberal religious organizations. ⁹

In April 2019, the WESPAC Foundation signed onto an open letter to all presidential candidates in the 2020 election cycle demanding that they commit to granting voting rights to convicted felons. Other signatories included influential left-of-center advocacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as more radical groups such as Democratic Socialists of America and the National Lawyers Guild. ¹⁰

In October 2023, the WESPAC Foundation signed onto an open letter calling for an “immediate ceasefire” between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants following the attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas earlier that month. WESPAC joined other signatories, including Islamic groups, radical-left collectives, and pro-Palestinian Jewish organizations. ¹¹

Environmental Activism

The WESPAC Foundation has backed a broad variety of anti-fossil fuel, anti-property development, and other environmentalist causes. In July 2017, WESPAC issued a statement against the expansion of an airport in Westchester County, New York. ¹²

In May 2021, the foundation joined more than 300 other left-of-center groups in signing a letter to the Biden administration in an attempt to have an oil pipeline running through Minnesota canceled. ¹³ The following month, WESPAC joined in on a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) which demanded that he implement new restrictions on fossil fuel exploration in the state. ¹⁴

In December 2022, the foundation signed onto a letter to the New York State Commissioner of Health, claiming that the state’s water regulations were not sufficiently stringent. ¹⁵ In October 2023, WESPAC signed a letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) which opposed natural gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” and endorsed a variety of environmentalist policies. ⁵ That same month, the foundation signed a letter addressed to the Biden administration Department of Agriculture to oppose a proposed regulation which would allegedly favor so-called “factory farms.” ¹⁶

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)

WESPAC supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement by funding or acting as a fiscal sponsor for (and thereby collecting tax-deductible donations on behalf of) several pro-Palestinian groups involved in the campaign to delegitimize Israel including the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN),¹⁷ National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Palestine Freedom Project, Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel,¹⁸ and the Palestinian Youth Movement USA. ¹⁹

The New York Jewish Week reported in 2015 that WESPAC “provides a list of companies for BDSers to target.” ¹⁸

U.S. Palestinian Community Network

Established in 2006, U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) is a Palestinian community-based grassroots organizing group. USPCN organized the Palestinian Popular Conference in 2008, the first conference to occur in over a decade. ²⁰ The USPCN Student Committee emerged from the 2010 Conference’s Palestinian Movement Assembly (PMA). ²¹ USPCN supports boycotts of business that do business in Israel including Coca Cola, and Airbnb,²² and has chapters in California, Chicago, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, St. Louis, the District of Columbia, and Wisconsin. ²⁰

In October 2023, the USPCN released a statement celebrating the attacks on Israel by the militant group Hamas, describing them as “self-defense operations” against “Israeli military outposts and illegal settlements.” The network claimed that the improvised, unguided rockets launched by Hamas and its affiliates were aimed exclusively at “military targets” while also dismissing the civilian hostages captured by Palestinian militias as “settlers” complicit in “years of unrelenting terrorism.” ²³ The left-of-center pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League also reported an initial statement by the USPCN which identified the Hamas attackers as “our people” and praised what it called their “anti-colonial, anti-occupation, and anti-Zionist liberation struggle.” ²⁴

National Students for Justice in Palestine

National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is the national coordinating body for approximately 200 campus-based Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at American colleges and universities. Established in 2010, SJP’s primary activity is organizing national conferences, where it provides training and guidance for local chapter leaders on BDS activities. ²⁵ These conferences have attracted detractors of Israel like Noam Chomsky and Anna Baltzer. ¹⁸ New York Jewish Week reported that WESPAC took contributions designated to support SJP activities. ¹⁸

While SJP claims that their actions are merely a legitimate criticism of Israel, its movement is seen as largely anti-Semitic by many Jewish leaders. ¹⁸ The group strongly condemned President Donald Trump’s executive order²⁶ that reiterated that Jewish people are to be protected from discrimination at taxpayer-funded universities, in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,²⁷ claiming that the order is meant to “nullify the rights of pro-Palestine groups on campus.” ²⁶

Local SJP chapters are known for intimidating Jewish students on campuses with their theatrical tactics with include “die-ins,” creating mock checkpoints, and distributing eviction notices in dormitories. ¹⁸

While BDS has had few tangible victories, the movement has succeeded in biasing students against Israel, and has magnified its support by developing allies with organizations like the Movement for Black Lives. ^{18 28}

SJP receives grants from groups like Cultures of Resistance Network. ²⁹

In October 2023, SJP released a statement celebrating the attacks on Israel by the militant group Hamas, calling them “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance.” According to reporting by the Washington Post, a spokesman for the SJP national organization indicated that some 180 of the group’s nearly 230 chapters had issued their own statements praising the attacks. ³⁰ SJP has claimed that Israel, which it refers to as “the zionist (sic) entity” bears “responsibility for every single death” in the conflict.” Furthermore, the group has published resources for its chapters to use for a protest or “disruption” on their campuses. ³¹

As of May 2024, SJP has been one of several pro-Palestinian groups funding and organizing protests and demonstrations on college campuses across the country while speaking out against the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. According to the Wall Street Journal, when pressed on its donations to SJP, Wespac board chairman Howard Horowitz commented that donations passed to SJP are “for projects in the United States,” but did not elaborate further. ³² Wespac has previously shown support for pro-Palestinian protests on college universities, and has even posted videos on its social media pages involving protesters holding up signs referring to President Joe Biden as “Genocide Joe.” ³²

The Palestine Freedom Project

The Palestine Freedom Project (PFP) was founded in 2005 in support of pro-Palestine activists worldwide. PFP claims that Israel is human rights abuser, and supports activist groups in spreading these false charges. ³³ The group sponsors workshops, publishes activist handouts, and provides a list of companies to boycott, claiming these companies are “profiting from the Occupation.” PFP has worked with anti-Israel speakers like Ali Abunimah, Anna Baltzer, Max Blumenthal, Richard Falk, and Jeff Halper. ¹⁸ PFP Receives grants from groups like Cultures of Resistance Network. New York Jewish Week reported that WESPAC had taken contributions on behalf of PFP. ²⁹

Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel

Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, formerly the Ad-Hoc Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, began organizing anti-Israel actions in 2006. The group merged with the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI) in 2010. Adalah-NY organizes actions and co-sponsors BDS related and political events. ³⁴ Adalah-NY promotes actions like cultural and consumer boycotts, including the boycotts of the Israeli Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall,³⁵ Sabra hummus, Hewlett-Packard,³⁶ and SodaStream,³⁷ among others. Adalah-NY receives grants from groups like Cultures of Resistance Network. ²⁹

In October 2023, in the aftermath of the attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas and its affiliates, Adalah posted a statement on social media blaming “Israeli colonizers” for the conflict and describing the attacks as “the natural reaction” to alleged “colonization and oppression.” ³⁸

Palestinian Youth Movement

The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) USA opposes Israel and seeks to build support for Palestine in the United States. While PYM does not claim affiliation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a foreign terrorist organization,³⁹ PYM uses PFLP’s imagery and rhetoric on its social media feeds. ⁴⁰ PYM mourns known terrorist leaders, and advocates for the release of prisoners held for their support of terrorist organizations. ⁴¹

PYM co-hosted the “2020 Youth for Palestine Conference.” ⁴¹

In October 2023, following the attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas militants, supporters of the PYM participated in an anti-Israel rally in New York City where a fight broke out with pro-Israel counter-protesters and an Israeli flag was vandalized. A member of PYM present at the rally gave a statement to a PBS reporter, claiming that “when Palestine rises up in resistance, the diaspora rises with it.” ⁴²

Legal Actions

As of July 2025, according to a report by watchdog group NGO Monitor that was released by the Washington Free Beacon, the WESPAC Foundation is involved in several lawsuits and facing legal action for its connection to groups responsible for anti-Israeli protests including ones targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington D.C in July 2024. ⁴³ WESPAC has also received lawsuits from the survivors of, as well as friends and family for the victims of, the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks for its affiliates allegedly being “collaborators and propagandists for Hamas.” ⁴⁴

According to the report, nearly all of the NGOs and other organizations that have received funding from WESPAC, “have secured alternative fiscal sponsorships” following October 7, 2023-related backlash. ⁴⁴ The report continues that WESPAC was, “named as a defendant in multiple lawsuits, accused of failing to exercise proper oversight over its fiscally sponsored projects. At the same time, the fiscal sponsorships have apparently been dissolved, with NGOs switching to new fiscal arrangements.” ⁴⁴

A January 2025 fundraising email from WESPAC argued that it was in “dire fiscal trouble” due to “well-funded forces of darkness” committing “legal warfare” while asking supporters for roughly “$90,000” in funds to “protect WESPAC from the precipice.” ⁴³ According to the Washington Free Beacon, as of 2025 most of the major affiliates WESPAC has funded, such as Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), have found alternative fiscal sponsors. ⁴³

People

Nada Khader has been the Executive Director of WESPAC Foundation since May 2001. ¹ Khader formerly served for the United Nations Development Program as a consultant in the Gaza Strip. ⁴⁵ Khader has been a speaker at events hosted by both SJP and Adalah-NY. ¹⁸

Board of Directors

Howard Horowitz is the president of the WESPAC Foundation board. He is a career activist who has been especially involved with left-wing Jewish groups. In addition, he has campaigned for raising the minimum wage. Horowitz is on record opposing Zionism and nationalism while also exalting his own vision for an ethno-religious identity within the liberal Jewish diaspora. At the same time, he has praised the work of organizations such as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has helped resettle large numbers of immigrants in the United States. ⁴⁶

Marina Guvenc is the board treasurer of the WESPAC Foundation. ⁴⁷ Guvenc is also a Senior Program Manager at the Wall Street Journal, former Program Manager at the New York Times, and senior Project Manager at both Reuters and The Economist. ⁴⁸

Andom Ghebreghiorgis is the board secretary of the WESPAC Foundation and a former Democratic Party House of Representatives candidate, who competed unsuccessfully against Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) for New York’s 16th Congressional District in 2020. ⁴⁷

Financials

In 2021, the WESPAC Foundation received just over $750,000 in contributions and grants, and held net assets of just over $1 million. ⁴⁷ That year, the foundation was one of several left-of-center nonprofits identified to receive taxpayer funding from the Westchester County, New York Department of Health. ⁴⁹