The Wisconsin media and top politicians have painted Salah Sarsour, the detained president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest Islamic organization and mosque, as a harmless furniture store owner and legal resident with no criminal history in the U.S. When news broke that ICE agents had swept Sarsour into custody this week, an aggressive PR machine immediately leapt into action with great success.
The controversial “American Muslims for Palestine” group, of which Sarsour, 53, serves on the board, claimed that he was “abducted by ICE,” calling Sarsour a “pillar of the community.” Democrat politicians and Wisconsin reporters dutifully followed, echoing that narrative. A state senator, Chris Larson, railed against fascists. The leading Democrat gubernatorial candidate, Francesca Hong, raised money for Sarsour’s defense, saying his life story is one to be celebrated, and adding that Sarsour “faced oppression and torture at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.” A relative’s TikTok video showed family photos of Sarsour alongside a ballad, “Slipping through my fingers,” and filled with comments praising him. “He does so much for the Milwaukee and Chicago community,” a person wrote.
However, that’s far from the full story. A Wisconsin Right Now investigation has documented a complicated web of serious Hamas-related accusations against Sarsour that date back decades. Minimally, the story of the Milwaukee furniture magnate, who lived in a more than $1 million home with a pool in Franklin (and allegedly had delinquent property taxes) before Homeland Security accused him of being a Molotov-cocktail-wielding “terrorist” and Hamas financier, is far more complex than the media have presented. His supporters have filed a court action demanding his immediate release. They say he’s being targeted for his pro-Palestinian speech.
However, we have documented: Sarsour, a Jordanian national who has lived in Milwaukee for decades, was once accused of funneling money to a Hamas terrorist leader named Adel Awadallah by his own brother, Jamil Sarsour, according to an Israeli police report. Those accusations are also repeated in a book, lawsuit, FBI memo, congressional testimony, and the website of the Anti-Defamation League, among other places, so it’s a bit surprising that they didn’t make it into the current stories about Salah Sarsour in The New York Times and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Salah is discussed in a Virginia lawsuit that was filed by Oct. 7 survivors and their families; he was deposed in another lawsuit by a Hamas terrorist victim’s family; he was arrested by Israel; he is accused of lying on his immigration application; he has ties to a string of controversial non-profits accused of assisting Hamas; and he was mentioned in congressional testimony that dealt with “threats to the Jewish state.” And that doesn’t even get into DHS accusing him of lobbing the Molotov cocktail at Israeli soldiers.
Emails requesting comment from the Muslim Legal Fund (which is representing Salah Sarsour) and the Islamic Society of Milwaukee were not returned. In particular, we sent the lawyers and the society the Israeli police report and requested a response.
There’s more. Salah’s brother Jamil Sarsour, also of Milwaukee, was convicted of charges relating to helping fund Hamas. He faced charges in Israel AND the U.S. That was big news at the time, coming as it did in the wake of 9/11, before reflexively simplistic anti-ICE narratives dominated the news. Wrote ABC News in 2003: “Israeli and U.S. authorities say (Jamil) Sarsour helped to finance a string of suicide bus bombings in Israel, including one that killed two Americans — Sarah Duker and Matt Eisenfeld — who were planning to be married.” The headline accused Jamil, a Milwaukee-area grocer, and another unrelated man of being “suspected terrorists” hiding in “plain sight.” Jamil was back living in Milwaukee as recently as 2024. It should be noted that he was not charged with the deaths; nor was his brother.
“According to Israeli sources cited in a book by former FBI and U.S. Treasury official Matthew Levitt, (Salah) Sarsour’s brother, Jamil Sarsour, told Israeli authorities that he and Salah used their Milwaukee furniture store’s bank account to pass money to Adel Awadallah, who was then a leader of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing,” Jonathan Schanzer alleged in Congressional testimony in 2016. Schanzer, who is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, worked as a terrorism finance analyst for the United States Department of the Treasury.
The Levitt book, which is available for sale on Amazon, contains several passages about Salah and Jamil Sarsour.
The caption for a book that pulled together a collection of Duker’s and Eisenfeld’s writings says, “Matthew Eisenfeld and Sara Duker were the best of their generation. They were brilliant, spiritual and kind. They were leaders and idealists who dreamed of fixing a broken world. Then their dreams were shattered. On February 25, 1996, Matt and Sara were murdered on the Number 18 Bus in Jerusalem.”
Yale Alumni Magazine explained the horrific scene: “In February 1996, a Palestinian terrorist boarded a bus in Jerusalem and set off a massive bomb. Eisenfeld, a 25-year-old rabbinical student, and Sara Duker, a recent Barnard College graduate, were among the 26 people killed. A paramedic found their bodies side by side, still in their seats.”
Salah Sarsour’s own involvement in a string of non-profits, including as a board member for American Muslims for Palestine, or AMP, has repeatedly fallen under scrutiny in the lawsuits by terrorist victims’ families, who are on a decades-long quest, along with some state attorneys general, to expose Hamas’s financial roots in the U.S. They argue that the path runs through non-profits with charitable sounding names.
In short, these accusations are not new, but they have been amped up lately by campus protests and growing anti-semitism, as well as an investigation by Virginia’s attorney general. A pro-Israel site has documented a series of incendiary and disturbing comments by other AMP leaders and speakers, including those allegedly denying the Oct. 7 massacre and praising Palestinians for “whooping Israel’s butt.”
You wouldn’t know any of this from the news media, of course, which has painted Sarsour as a kindly community leader who did nothing wrong, even before the government’s case is fully known. A defense fund for Salah Sarsour, posted by AMP, has raised more than $146,000. It claims he was pulled over by 10 ICE agents for “no cause.” Many news stories started like this one, in the Wisconsin Examiner:
Contrast that narrative with the allegations in a 2019 lawsuit filed against American Muslims for Palestine by Joyce and Stanley Boim, whose son, David, was murdered by Hamas in 1996.
Hamas’s ‘1st American Victim’
In a 2024 deposition in Illinois conducted for the case filed by the Boims, which was posted by Jewish Insider, Salah Salem Sarsour confirmed some basic biographical facts; he was an officer at the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and the Muslim American Society. He has a brother named Jamil who is living again in Milwaukee.
Salah, whose son is also named Adel, confirmed that he shared a prison room (he stopped short of calling it a cell) with Hamas terrorist Adel Awadallah and other people, but Salah said he did not stay in touch with Awadallah after they left prison. He indicated that the goal of the American Muslims for Palestine group (AMP) was to educate people about Palestinian issues. He confirmed he was chairman of AMP’s convention and helped determine who could join its “steering group.”
“We are working for education and awareness of Islam and education,” he said, while adding that the group wouldn’t allow advertising in its program if it called “Netanyahu, a good person” or “Ariel Sharon, a person of value,” because that’s “just something crazy. No one believes that, you know.” Overall, though, he claimed to lack knowledge of various people and groups. He painted AMP as a positive and harmless venture, like the other non-profits he’d been involved in.
However, Jamil’s accusations – and those of various plaintiffs and attorneys general – paint a darker story.
Adel Awadallah, known as “The Engineer 3,” was a “high-ranking Hamas military leader who was responsible for facilitating several deadly terrorist attacks carried out in Israel,” per authorities. Awadallah was killed in 1998 during a shooting with Israeli forces.
At one point, Awadallah “topped Israel’s most wanted list in the West Bank,” The Los Angeles Times reported in 1998, adding that Awadallah and his brother “were leaders of the secretive military wing of the extremist Islamic group and had been sought by Israel for planning and participating in attacks that killed five Israelis and wounded more than 50 others.” Israel described them as “master terrorists.”
David Boim was a citizen of both Israel and the United States, who “was living with his parents in Israel when he was gunned down while waiting for a bus in the West Bank outside of Jerusalem. He was apparently shot at random by gunmen believed to be acting on behalf of the terrorist organization Hamas.”
According to The New York Post, for decades, Boim’s parents have pursued civil recourse against a web of U.S. non-profits they accuse of being linked to Hamas. Although their lawsuit didn’t name Salah Sarsour as a defendant, he was deposed and asked to explain how the American Muslims for Palestine group (AMP) worked. The Boims’ legal battles have extended across decades.
At one point, the Boims received a $156 million judgment against several non-profits, but the non-profits then went out of business, The Post reported. The Boims allege that the American Muslims for Palestine group was just a reorganized version of the earlier organizations, which AMP denies.
“Their case has inspired other litigation against US-based non-profits, such as American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP),” explained The Post. “Both of those groups…have been behind many of the campus demonstrations in support of Palestine and Hamas.”
It’s worth noting that Milwaukee was the site of a particularly entrenched pro-Gaza encampment on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, although the funding sources for it are not clear.
“I never give a thought to giving up,” Joyce Boim told The Post. “We have to fight against these monsters of Hamas in any way we can, and this is my way.
The Muslim Legal Fund, which is now representing Salah Sarsour, has called the Boims’ allegations “baseless claims” and says it has prevailed several times against them in court. “Without MLFA’s donors, AMP too would have run out of money and not continued to serve its purpose to educate the U.S. on the rich culture and history of Palestine,” The Muslim Legal Fund wrote. “Now more than ever, AMP’s right to do that matters–even in the face of unsupported allegations. We will continue fighting for AMP as long as needed, so it can continue its work, and we can make sure the legal system requires more than just ‘broad brush’ allegations against all Muslim nonprofits.”
The Boims’ lawsuit contains incendiary accusations against Salah; they are based, in part, on the Israeli police interview with his own brother.
“Salah Sarsour is the CEO of Prime Furniture in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He owns and operates the business together with his two brothers, Emad (Imad) and Jamil…Salah Sarsour is a permanent resident of the United States but is deeply connected to Hamas figures in the Middle East and has a background as a Hamas operative and funder,” the Boims’ lawsuit alleged.
“He (Salah) was imprisoned in Israel on October 14, 1994 for activities on behalf of Hamas,” the lawsuit contends. “Israeli police records state that he was indicted for sheltering and providing a weapon to a Hamas militant. His brother, Jamil Sarsour, after he was arrested in 1999 at the Tel Aviv airport, told Israel Police that Salah and he had opened a special bank account to fund Hamas.”
“According to Jamil, this money, in the form of 39 checks drawn on the account, was given directly to the Hamas military wing including to Adel Ahmad Awadallah, the military head of Hamas on the West Bank with whom Salah Sarsour had once shared a prison cell,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Salah had sent Jamil to the West Bank to deliver the funds to Awadallah and others,” it contends. “Awadallah was identified by the government as a ‘high-ranking Hamas military leader who was responsible for facilitating several deadly terrorist attacks carried out in Israel.’ Jamil Sarsour also told Israel Police that he had a close relationship with Hassan Yousef, the political head of Hamas on the West Bank.”
The Boims’ lawsuit doesn’t end there. For example, the Boim lawsuit alleges that Salah and Jamil “were also major funders of and fundraisers for HLF.” HLF stands for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
“Historically, Hamas supporters have abused the U.S. financial system to send millions of dollars overseas,” Schanzer, executive director for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, testified in 2023 before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.
“From 1989-2001, one such network raised millions of dollars for Hamas through a Texas-based charity known as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. In December 2001, U.S. authorities raided HLF and froze its assets. Ultimately, five individuals (not the Sarsours) were convicted and sent to prison for providing material support to Hamas,” he said.
AMP “was spawned by individuals who previously worked for nonprofits that were shuttered by federal authorities or sued in civil court because they provided financial or material support to Hamas,” he added.
Schanzer also testified in 2016. “However, one official candidly told me that suspected Hamas activists in the United States were viewed then as protected sources in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group,” Schanzer told Congress. But then Donald Trump was re-elected, and that appears to have changed.
Another thing that changed: The ramped-up encampments and anti-semitism that hit college campuses.
A congressional committee wrote in a 2024 letter, “The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is conducting oversight of the funding sources of groups supporting illegal activities across the country, including at institutions of higher education, by individuals spouting pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and violations of the civil rights of Jewish students.” The letter was addressed to:
National Students for Justice in Palestine
c/o Dr. Osama Abuirshaid
Executive Director
American Muslims for Palestine
Continued that letter, which was signed by James Comer: “Since the October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel by Hamas, antisemitic incidences have skyrocketed in the United States. At illegal encampments on college campuses, many individuals have championed antisemitic rhetoric calling for the elimination of Jewish people from Israel, employing ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ and ‘Death to Israel’ as rallying cries.”
The letter alleged: “AMP has substantial ties to Hamas via its financial sponsor, Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation, Inc. (AJP), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. AJP is currently under investigation by the Virginia Attorney General for violating state charitable solicitation laws and ‘benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations.’ Reportedly, current AMP board members have been involved in fundraising for Hamas charities…AMP is also linked to the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), which sent approximately $12.4 million outside the U.S. to support Hamas.”
Meanwhile, AMP has soldiered on, holding a conference attended by 5,000 people. “This year’s theme revolved around the genocide in Gaza. Our approach to addressing the catastrophe that has unfolded over the last two years was to develop a framework to move beyond survival. Historically, when empires and world powers counted the Palestinians out, the Palestinian people found a way to maintain continuity and ensure their growth as a nation and people, beyond survival,” AMP says on its website.
In another spot on the website, it says, “Israel continues to use the bodies of its prisoners in Gaza as a pretext to justify its ongoing assault, siege, and starvation of over two million people. This is a classic colonial tactic—racist, cruel, and deeply rooted in the Zionist movement’s myth of Jewish racial superiority.”
‘Suspected Terrorist Hiding in Plain Sight’
The most incendiary accusations are found in the underlying Israeli police document, which was posted by The Investigative Project on Terrorism. It documents the alleged interview with Jamil Sarsour.
Jamil Sarsour has been making news for years; the 2003 ABC News story called him “Jamil Sarsour, 52” who “runs a grocery store in Milwaukee but also served jail time in Israel. Federal authorities in Milwaukee have brought money-laundering charges against Sarsour.”
An Associated Press article from 2001 quoted Salah, then 28, as praising Jamil’s big heart. Jamil, then 50, was described as a Palestinian who, unlike Salah, became a U.S. citizen after moving to the United States many years before.
The article says that Jamil was arrested in Israel in 1998 and accused of giving money and information to Awadallah, described as a “Hamas leader in his hometown.” The article notes that Hamas supported 9/11 terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Jamil Sarsour’s relatives told the AP that he complained of being tortured in Israel.
An Israeli military court indicated that Jamil allegedly had “extensive” ties to Hamas and was a “full partner,” the AP alleged. According to the AP, Jamil ran businesses and owned properties in Wisconsin. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee when he first came to the U.S. in the 1970s; however, he had a home and business in the West Bank as well and would travel there. His family told the AP he was bringing money there to help impoverished Palestinians. The AP alleged that Jamil had admitted in a news account making a “small contribution” to Awadallah’s family. Jamil’s family told the AP they expected him to be deported as it was the wake of 9/11, and they described him as a good and peaceful man.
It turns out that Jamil Sarsour was deported all right…. back to the U.S. from Israel, after serving time there.
“On October 23, 1998, (Jamil) Sarsour was arrested when he arrived in Tel Aviv from Milwaukee,” a 2003 press release from then Wisconsin-based U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic says. “Israeli court documents show that he was charged with aiding Hamas and later pled guilty to those charges. Deportation proceedings began when he completed his term of imprisonment and upon his recent release from prison in Israel he was deported to the United States. He was arrested on a criminal complaint on December 27, 2002.”
Jamil was described as “a Milwaukee businessman” who was charged in the U.S. “with evading the currency transaction reporting requirements that cash transactions in excess of $10,000 be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Sarsour structured $25,000 in financial transactions on October 22, 1998, the day he departed for Israel, to avoid the federal reporting requirements.” He faced five years in prison.
Othman Atta, who has prominently acted as a spokesman for Salah after his recent detention, popped up in a story back then as well, saying he believed that Jamil was “falsely convicted.” Atta told Fox 6, “He (Jamil) was tortured while he was there. They got him to sign something in a language he didn`t understand, and it was under severe coercion.” As an aside, Atta, an attorney, was publicly reprimanded for having sex with a client; he initially denied it.
There is an unexplained age discrepancy in the 1998 Israeli police interview with Jamil. It says his brother Salah was 42 at that time. However, Salah is today 53. The reason for that discrepancy is not clear, and we gave Salah’s lawyers every chance to respond.
As with the Boim lawsuit, book, FBI memo, and congressional testimony, the Anti-Defamation League indicates the Milwaukee Islamic leader is the brother mentioned in that report; ADL ran a photo of Salah Sarsour alongside a section discussing Jamil’s accusations. That photo closely resembles the Homeland Security mugshot of the detained Islamic leader. Futhermore, details that Salah Sarsour gave in the Illinois deposition match details in the Jamil report; namely that he shared a room in prison with Adel Awadallah, helped run a furniture store, lived in Milwaukee, had another brother named Ahmad, and so forth. Datamining sites do not show another Salah Sarsour in Wisconsin or the U.S.
“American Muslims for Palestine is at the core of the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist movement in the United States,” the ADL wrote, referring to a controversial group on whose board the detained Milwaukeaan, Salah Salem Sarsour, sits.
“According to a 2001 FBI memorandum, Jamil Sarsour was arrested in 1998 for funding Hamas and told Israeli investigators that his brother Salah Sarsour was involved in funding Hamas through his fundraising for the Holy Land Foundation (HLF),” ADL alleged.
That FBI memo says that, in a one-year time frame from 2000 to 2001, Hamas was involved in 20 bombings, two shootings, a kidnapping, and a mortar attack. At least 77 people, including three American citizens, were killed and at least 547 people were injured. A pregnant elementary school teacher was among the Americans killed.
The FBI had monitored a meeting in Philadelphia between Hamas leaders and a group called the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP.)
The FBI memo contains a section titled “Jamil Sarsour confession,” which alleges he was arrested for providing financial assistance to Awadallah and was found carrying $66,530, a personal telephone book and two American passpoorts.
The memo says that, during the course of his interview, Jamil described his brother “Salah Sarsour’s involvement with Hamas and funding activities by the HLFRD, in Richardson, Texas, on behalf of Hamas. Sarsour stated that some of the members of the Islamic Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and his brothers… are involved in raising money in the name of the HLFRD that is actually for Hamas.”
“The U.S. Treasury’s December 2001 designation of the Richardson, Texas-based Holy Land Foundation was a landmark terrorism finance case in America,” Schanzer explained in his testimony.
What Does the Israeli Police Report Say?
The Israeli police document is dated Dec. 2, 1998, and is stamped “Israeli police.” It says that Jamil Sarsour was interviewed by Officer David Mizrachi in Jerusalem. The document paints a complex family tree, defining Jamil as a businessman from Milwaukee. He was born in ‘Bet-Lehem.” The police report alleges that Jamil said the following:
He had been in the U.S. since 1970 and periodically visited his homeland – details which match the later AP story. In 1988, he was introduced to a “Hizbalah activist living in Ramallah” named Ibrahim Abu Salam Bin, a relative of Sheikh Hasan Yusif. He is a major figure in the world of Hamas – both its co-founder and, for a time, its high-profile spokesman.
The document alleges that Jamil also met others, including a school teacher named Abu Omar Jamal or Sheikh Jamal, who was imprisoned in Ramallah. “They are all religious people, and every time I came to visit my family, they tried to convince me to become a member of Hizballah,” he said. He allegedly gave them money for a building where they held underground meetings, and around 1990, Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tair approached and asked him to become a member of Hamas. It was decided it “was better if I didn’t become an active member of the organization, but I should send them money from the U.S. instead, without becoming a member,” the interview alleges Jamil said.
Abu Tair, a well-known Hamas leader, would spend 30 years in Israeli prisons.
The police document further alleges that Jamil said:
He described Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tair as a Hamas leader in the area. At one point, he was asked to take a package to the US to send to Great Britain.
And this is where the name of Salah Sarsour, described as Jamil’s brother, comes into the document. “In 1995, my brother Salah, 42 years of age, traveled to El-Beera. When he arrived, he heard that his brother in law, Sheikhh Nassar, his wife’s brother, 35 years old, was an activist for Hamas,” the document says.
“His brother-in-law made my brother his companion, taking him from place to place, gave him money for food and other (sic). I don’t know exactly what happened, but my brother was arrested and convicted to spend 8 months in the prison at Ramallah,” he said, according to the document.
“I think Sheikh Nassal (sic) was arrested by Palestinian Police. While my brother was in the prison at Ramallah, I went to see Salah, and I saw Adel Awdallah (sic), and Mohammed Abu Tair there too. My brother and Adel Awdallah shared a cell and they had become very good friends,” he alleged. “I already declared that I had given money in 1991. Adel Awdallah asked me to help out with money again and told me Israel and the Palestinian authorities were after him. I passed money over to Adel Awdallah several times, and my brother sent money to him through me several times too.”
He added, “I had already stated this before. I brought checks from our business. My brother and I are partners. Each time I came, I brought a $2,000 check and I cashed it in UI (possibly, money exchange) at Ramallah. This was around 1997-1998. I used to bring $2,000 on behalf of my brother and I would add $1,000 from myself. The checks that my brother Salah gave me were from a (UI) bank. In Milwaukee, from the business account. We didn’t want to use personal checks from either one of us so that the government shouldn’t trace the checks back to us personally. We did it this way so we could take checks abroad and send money to Adel Awdallah. The account is in my brother Salah and my name.”
He added that “some of the money from that account went to other pro-Palestinian organizations such as the Holyland Foundation (sic). Not only my brother contributed money, but I deposited money in that account as well. There were people asking for money for those who died for the Holy cause, the Holyland Foundation, called HLF. There are other organizations, such as the Islamic Center in Milwaukee.”
His brother Ahmad (or Imad) was allegedly a member of the center. Jamil alleged that the Holyland Foundation does give money to Hamas. There is another Palestinian organization called Islamic Association for Palestine. It is allegedly connected to the HLF. “My brother Salah works for this organization also. He collects funds for this organization,” he alleged. “When we heard in the US that Adel and his brother Ahmad Awdallah were killed by soldiers, he cried for them. He was very sad because they were good friends. My brother decided he wanted to vindicate their deaths and decided to plan an attack against Israel. I don’t know if he did anything or just said he would do such a thing, but he was arrested.”
At another point, he allegedly said, “My brother was detained because of his connections with Hamas organizations.”
Jamil alleged that Jamil sometimes contributes money to organizations that got his address from the Islamic center in Milwaukee and believes that they “may be connected to Hamas.” He said people come to Milwaukee to “collect money.” One of them had a father in law working for his “brother Salah in the furniture store.” Another is related to someone with a supermarket.
A Mysterious Fire
By 2012, Jamil was back in Milwaukee, owning a building that housed a store called Food Castle, which mysteriously burned down. Around the same time, an Oak Creek home owned by another brother, Imad, also caught fire. Salah was quoted in that story as saying he believed the fires were a coincidence. However, authorities later gathered evidence that the Food Castle fire might have been intentionally set; that story says the Oak Creek fire was in a garage. Who would do such a thing, or why is not clear.
Back then, the Milwaukee media was less hands-off when it came to alleged Islamic terrorism. The 2012 story by Fox 6 noted that Jamil “was convicted by an Israeli military court in 1998 of giving the pro-Palestinian group Hamas tens of thousands of dollars. (Jamil) Sarsour spent four years in prison.” It added, “(Jamil) Sarsour was also charged in federal court in Milwaukee in 1998 with avoiding reporting requirements in several cash transactions. Sarsour pleaded guilty to those charges in 2004.”
However, Salah told Fox 6 in 2021 that “the issues linking his brother to the terrorist group is in the past.”
Over the years, both Jamil and Salah have been listed as the registered agents on many LLCs.
Attorneys General Target AMP & October 7 Victims Sue
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is one of the attorneys general taking aim at AMP. “On October 8, 2023, radical groups American Muslims for Palestine (‘AMP’) and National Students for Justice in Palestine (‘NSJP’) declared that they were ‘Part of’ a ‘Unity Intifada’ under Hamas’s “unified command,” he wrote.
An amicus brief filed by many attorneys general alleges, “AMP and NSJP did not begin their material support for Hamas on October 8, 2023; rather, their material support has been going on for decades—both as the current organizations and through predecessor entities.” A judge blocked Virginia’s attorney general from obtaining donor lists.
On March 28, 2025, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) launched a probe into AMP to “address antisemitism on college campuses.” His news release mentions Salah Sarsour, alleging he is: “An AMP board member and Director of AJP (AMP’s partner organization) who advertises and fundraises for AMP conferences. He also raised funds for the HLF and reportedly sent funds to Adel Awadallah, a Hamas military leader.” He cited the previous congressional testimony.
Salah is also discussed in a Virginia civil suit filed against AMP and other Muslim organizations by the Oct. 7 terrorist attack victims and their families. Those plaintiffs include Maya Parizer, a U.S. citizen who survived the terrorist attack at the Nova music festival with her boyfriend, “fleeing by car and dodging Hamas gunfire as they weaved through dead bodies on the roads.” Another plaintiff is Noach Newman, a U.S. citizen whose brother, David Yair Shalom Newman, also a U.S. citizen, “was murdered when Hamas terrorists stormed the Nova Festival.” Many other Oct. 7 victims are among the plaintiffs.
“Salah Sarsour was an active member of IAP, chaired the convention where AMP was officially formed, and currently sits on AMP’s National Board,” that lawsuit alleges. “In 1994, he was arrested and imprisoned in Israel for engaging in activities supporting Hamas after he was caught sheltering and providing a weapon to a Hamas terrorist. Sarsour chaired AMP’s 2023 Palestine Convention.”
“The most relevant here are the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (‘HLF’), the Islamic Association for Palestine (‘IAP’), and IAP’s many alter egos, including the American Muslim Society (‘AMS’),” the lawsuit alleges. “HLF served as Hamas’s fundraising arm in the United States. IAP’s ‘primary function was to serve as the public voice of Hamas in the United States.’ AMS was originally incorporated as a separate organization, but merged with IAP and operated as one of its many alter egos. HLF and IAP were both founded and controlled by members of Hamas’s senior leadership.”
The lawsuit alleges that AMP “is Hamas’s propaganda division in the United States. AMP was founded from the ashes of disbanded organizations created by senior Hamas officials after those organizations and related individuals were exposed and found criminally and civilly liable for providing material support to Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups.” It contends, “AMP is accused of being the successor entity to two organizations currently dodging a judgment exceeding $150 million under the Antiterrorism Act for providing material support to Hamas.” AMP denies the accusations.
The lawsuit further alleges, “Salah Sarsour is an AMP board member. A 2001 FBI memo to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) describes how Sarsour’s brother, after being arrested by Israel in 1998, told Israeli officials about Sarsour’s ‘involvement with Hamas and fundraising activities of HLFRD [Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development].'”
The lawsuit includes this photo:
It links to an Instagram video of Salah that is still active.
View this post on Instagram
It includes Salah on a list of the “Palestine Committee Alumni at AMP,” saying, “AMP is not a collection of young idealists. Rather, it is a collection of well-practiced adults who have, for decades, dedicated their lives to promoting the interests of international terrorist organizations and nation-state proxies in the United States.”
Immediate Sympathy From Politicians
Salah Sarsour’s detention this week by ICE – Homeland Security accused him of being a “terrorist” who once tossed a Molotov cocktail at Israeli forces – set off a firestorm in Wisconsin. It’s impossible to overstate how dramatically and emotionally Democrats leaped to Sarsour’s prompt defense. News stories were little more than copies and pastes of statements from Sarsour’s supporters; eventually, most threaded in a slightly delayed response from DHS.
A Democrat candidate for governor, state Rep. Kelda Roys, accused authorities of staging an “authoritarian kidnapping”; the Milwaukee mayor (Cavalier Johnson) and County Executive (David Crowley) attended a rally on Sarsour’s behalf; and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and almost all Democrat governor candidates immediately defended him, using extremely charged and emotional language.
“Free Salah Sarsour,” UWM Professor Rachel Buff chanted at a press conference for Sarsour.
Linda Sarsour shared a family photo of Salah online, slamming his detainment. The New York Post has called her “a notorious antisemite who has been a longtime mentor of anti-Israel” socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. She refused to stand with the Charlie Hebdo attack victims and once said, “nothing is creepier than Zionism.”
The intersection of the twin liberal causes of ICE and Gaza – both present in the Sarsour detention case – helped ignite that fuse, as did a contested primary. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican running for governor, promptly condemned the Democratic reaction, calling Sarsour a “criminal alien.”
Homeland Security responded that Salah Sarsour is a “Jordanian national with a prior conviction for THROWING A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL at the homes of Israeli Forces. He lied on his immigration application and became a green card holder under President Clinton.”
“He was targeted because of one thing, because he dared stand up to the Israeli army,” Othman Atta, one of Sarsour’s attorneys, told the crowd at a rally supporting him. “And he was not a U.S. citizen.”
At an AMP conference, Atta allegedly said that designating groups like Hamas terrorist organizations is a “political decision.”
The New York Times painted a sympathetic picture, writing that Salah “had lived and worked in the country for more than three decades without incident.” The newspaper quoted his lawyer and supporters as questioning the claims, including why they are being made now after all of these years.
“Salah Salem Sarsour is a terrorist convicted for throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces. This illegal alien from Jordan lied on his green card application to gain legal status in the U.S.,” insisted Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “Thanks to President Trump and ICE, this terrorist is out of American communities. This Administration will always put the safety of the American people FIRST and Make America Safe Again.” But gone are the days when an official government response quells the fury.
Salah Sarsour “first submitted an application for an immigrant visa at the American Consulate in Jerusalem, which was denied due to his convictions in Israel for throwing a Molotov cocktail at the homes of Israeli armed forces and illegally attempting to possess weapons and ammunition,” DHS wrote.
“He ultimately entered the United States in 1993—under the Clinton administration—as a conditional resident. After lying on his application, he became a green card holder in 1998 under President Clinton.” DHS also accused Salah of being “suspected of funding terror organizations.” Atta told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Sarsour was arrested a second time in 1998 in Israel but the charges were dropped. He claimed the initial arrest came when Sarsour was a teenager. We asked ICE to clarify how old Sarsour was when he was arrested, but we did not hear back.
The Journal Sentinel says that Salah, who lived in Franklin, WI, owns at least three furniture stores in the Milwaukee area. He owned Prime Furniture Trading LLC at one point.
“It’s absolutely false,” Atta told that newspaper of the claims that Sarsour supported Hamas.
“He is being deported because he’s exercising his right of freedom of speech.”
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