The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), a conservative Christian-based social activist organization, filed two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits demanding records from the Biden State Department to determine whether the administration has been channeling funds to delegitimize Israel. 

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs for the ACLJ, outlined these accusations in an article he published last month:

“As the Biden Administration continues its negotiations in Vienna toward a nuclear deal with Iran, which would directly imperil Israel’s security, it is also taking steps within the State Department to undermine Israel’s democratic legitimacy,” Pompeo wrote. 

He pointed at a new State Department grant opportunity, with potential funding of up to $1 million, to “strengthen accountability and human rights in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.”

“As innocuous as that sounds, the reality is the State Department is going to use your taxpayer dollars to support work which slanders Israel and falsely paints it as an apartheid state,” Pompeo wrote.

Pompeo went on to list Biden appointees who have overt anti-Israel biases, including advocating for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.  

“Last year, the Biden Administration violated the Taylor Force Act by resuming aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), knowing that the PA was still funding its infamous ‘pay for slay’ programs,” Pompeo wrote. 

The Taylor Force Act is an Act of Congress to stop American economic aid to the Palestinian Authority until the PA ceases paying stipends through the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to the families of deceased terrorists. Signed into law by President Trump in 2018, it led to the US cutting more than $200 million in direct aid to the PA. Also, in August 2018, the United States stopped giving support to UNRWA, representing an aid cut of $300 million.

It is estimated that the PA spent at least $151 million in 2019 on its “Pay to Slay” program and at least $155 million in 2020. 

Biden has reinstated aid to both the PA and UNRWA despite the Taylor Force Act. The Biden Administration notified Congress that it intends to distribute $125 million in aid to “Palestine,” reportedly to “regain their ‘trust and goodwill’ after the Trump-era cuts.” The assistance package was set to take effect on April 10.

“Such funding incentivized acts of terror and, in so doing, made the conflict worse, not better,” Pompeo wrote. 

The ACLJ filed two FOIA lawsuits for their “unconscionable actions against the Jewish state.” They are demanding all State Department records, communications, or briefings created, shared, sent, received, forwarded, or reviewed by any State Department official regarding in any way: U.S. aid or funds of any kind being given to the Palestinian Authority, communications in reference to the Taylor Force Act, the issue of allowing the PLO mission to reopen in the United States, and any records about former Secretary of State John Kerry’s potential involvement (or anyone acting on his behalf) on any of the above issues.

“Now the Biden administration is offering what amounts to a bounty for the PA or any other antisemitic organization or government to drum up new charges of human rights violations against Israel. And of course, as usual, any demonstrable validity of said violations is optional at best,” ACLJ’s Jordan Sekulow explained.

The report suggested Biden’s interest in destabilizing Israel is “to appease Iran, the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world, which paints the words ‘Israel must be destroyed on the sides of its ballistic missiles.” Funding the PA is seen as a way of pushing through the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal.