Israel-hater and faux feminist Linda Sarsour is back in the news yet again, this time for her fundraising efforts in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Or more to the point, the apparent dodginess of her fundraising efforts.
Controversial activist Linda Sarsour is being called out widely for her efforts to solicit donations for a leftist organizing group under the guise of Hurricane Harvey relief.
In an early Tuesday-morning Tweet, Sarsour asked her followers to donate to the “Harvey Hurricane Relief Fund.”
That link takes potential donors to a donation page that evokes the devastation of Harvey, clearly mentioning the “Hurricane Harvey Community Relief Fund” next to a picture of flooded Houston highways.
But the page’s donation button doesn’t direct funds to any of the actual groups currently involved in Hurricane relief, like the Houston Food Bank, the Greater Houston Community Foundation or the Texas Diaper Bank. Instead, the page funnels money to the “Texas Organizing Project Education Fund,” a nonprofit dedicated to “advancing racial and economic justice through community and electoral organizing.”
Have these advocates of justice decided to help provide food or shelter for the displaced? Not exactly. “All donations made here will only be used to organize in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey,” the group announced on its Facebook page. “Together we will organize and advocate for our devastated communities, shining a spotlight on inequalities that emerge in the restoration of lives, livelihoods, and homes, amplifying the needs of hard-hit communities, and providing legal assistance for residents wrongfully denied government support.”
The Daily Caller adds:
The page lists off a number of prominent liberal organizations towards the bottom (with logos) that are apparently sponsoring the relief page, including: massive labor unions like the Communication Workers of America and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and Faith In Texas, a group that advocates for “economic and racial justice,” among others. At least 20 percent of SEIU’s budget went to political endeavors, according to The Washington Free Beacon, having spent $61.6 million during former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and $113 million throughout former President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election bid. It was also one of the first unions to endorse Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
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While its somewhat likely that at least some of the money will go towards humanitarian aid, it is not clear how much, and what exactly such support would entail.
I did a bit more digging, and found a report by Law Newz, which I assume would be more willing to give Sarsour the benefit of the doubt, based on this:
Several right-wing websites then took aim at Sarsour, and questioned whether the funds are actually being used to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Twitter reaction to the anti-Sarsour articles has been swift and consistently brutal–and occasionally racist and Islamophobic. (Sarsour is Palestinian and Muslim.)
But even they had similar findings:
TOP is connected to the SEIU and MoveOn.org as well other organizations generally considered left-of-center–and concern regarding the fund essentially accuses those “left-wing organizations” of being incapable of providing disaster relief.
We looked into where donations to TOP have been spent in the past, and discovered nearly all of the money spent by the PAC has gone to Democratic politicians. According to OpenSecrets, in 2016, TOP spent $15,509 in support of Hillary Clinton and $4,752 against Donald Trump.
LawNewz reached out to TOP in order to clarify–and break down exactly–where funds raised for the Hurricane Harvey Community Relief Fund are headed, but a full response was not received at the time of publication. A request to Ms. Sarsour went unanswered.
Although they do add:
TOP later issued a press release, from Executive Director Michelle Tremillo, which begins:
“We want to be clear on a key point about the Harvey Community Relief Fund, which is being housed within the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund: We have an ironclad commitment that 100 percent of the money raised into this fund will be spent directly on ensuring low income and people of color are not forgotten in the relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts. Not a dime will be spent on any other purpose.”
Still sounds very dodgy to me.
In the meantime, this is what real help looks like.
Israeli humanitarian aid organizations and the American Jewish community are extending a helping hand to residents of the greater Houston area hit by Hurricane Harvey, both young and old.
IsraAID and iAID were among the first international organizations to dispatch teams to help with cleanup and repair of flood-damaged homes and provide counseling for family members in need.
But do you think Sarsour would ever support such efforts from “Zionists”, or even give them credit for saving lives?
