International Solidarity Movement (ISM)

ISM co-founder Ghassan Andoni was allegedly involved in anti-Israeli riots. ² Richard David Hupper, who was “connected” with ISM, pled guilty and was sentenced to prison in 2008 for funding terrorism after being accused of donating roughly $20,000 to Hamas. ^{3 4}

Background

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was founded in 2001, ¹ and claims to work on documentation of everyday life under what it calls “apartheid,” as well as alleged “human rights and international law violations” by Israel. ¹ The Middle East Children’s Alliance provided fiscal sponsorship for ISM in 2006. ⁵

ISM referred to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack against the State of Israel as an “offensive by the Palestinian resistance” and the Israeli response as “colonial violence.” In response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring war following the attack, ISM claimed “Palestinians are not the only ones facing the consequences of Israel’s colonial apartheid state” and called for volunteers “on the ground” in the West Bank. ⁶

Alleged Support for Terrorism

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a left-of-center Jewish-interest group, identified Richard David Hupper as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Hupper pled guilty and was sentenced to prison in 2008 for funding terrorism after giving Hamas $20,000. ^{7 3 4}

In 2002, the State of Israel alleged that ISM tried “to assist the wanted terrorists who seized the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.” ⁸

In March 2003, senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Shadi Sukiya was found hiding in ISM’s Jenin office and was arrested. ⁸

ISM co-founder Ghassan Andoni, who reportedly has left ISM, was allegedly a member of a student cell of the Arab Liberation Front, “a pro-Iraqi terrorist organization,” while a student at Bethlehem University in the 1970s and 1980s, though the Israel-based Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported that he “as far as is known was not involved in terrorism.” ²

Leadership

Huwaida Arraf co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), in addition to the Free Gaza movement. ⁹ She was a civil-rights attorney for University of Michigan students who faced disciplinary measures following a November 2023 sit-in, at which police arrested 40 students. ⁹ Arraf also ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat in 2022 for U.S. Congress. ¹⁰

ISM listed Neta Golan and Ghassan Andoni as additional co-founders. ¹¹ The three co-founders were honored for their work by the American Friends Service Committee in 2007. ¹¹

Funding

The Middle East Children’s Alliance provided fiscal sponsorship for the International Solidarity Movement in 2006 ¹² and the Brecht Forum accepted donations for ISM-NYC in 2007. ¹³ In 2013, the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute was a fiscal sponsor of ISM. ¹⁴ As of January 20, 2025, a GoFundMe had raised just less than £30,000 (approximately $37,000) for “ISM’s vital work in Palestine.” ¹⁵