Criticize Israel? Say goodbye to your nonprofit status

It doesn’t take much to be accused of supporting terrorism these days. Mere speech criticizing the Israeli government has been sufficient to expose organizations to legal risk.

But under new anti-terror legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives, the secretary of the Treasury would be given unconstrained power to revoke the nonprofit status of any organization deemed “terrorist supporting.”

This bill is so overly broad that even nonprofit news organizations like The Intercept could be at risk if we continue our hard-hitting reporting on Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Intercept will never let the government bully or silence us — and the stalwart support of readers like you ensures the independence we need to keep digging for the truth.

Will you donate $5 to ensure this nonprofit newsroom can continue to defy the stifling pro-Israel consensus in Washington?

Make no mistake: U.S. law already bans financing terrorism under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act enacted in 1977.

This new proposed law, which could soon come to the Senate floor, would go further by allowing the Treasury secretary to unilaterally designate an organization as “terrorist supporting” without due process and using classified information that nonprofits would not be permitted to review, or challenge, in federal courts.

And what, exactly, qualifies as “supporting terrorists”? Recent history shows that basic journalism could easily get you in hot water.

Elected officials have already called for criminal terrorism investigations into news outlets like CNN and The Associated Press based on spurious allegations that freelance photojournalists in Gaza had somehow coordinated with Hamas.

One letter signed by more than a dozen state attorneys general floated the theory that the outlets’ reporting could itself evidence support for Hamas, asserting that “material support” for terrorist groups can include “writing and distributing publications supporting the organization.”

The revocation of tax-exempt status would be a death knell for many nonprofit outlets, and the mere prospect would chill reporting, not only on Israel but also on U.S. foreign policy generally. And that’s not to mention the threat to nonprofit press freedom organizations that defend the rights of journalists to report from war zones like Gaza.

We know that pro-Netanyahu politicians would love to silence The Intercept. But we will not be bullied, and with your support, we will continue to do the hard-hitting investigative journalism others won’t.

Will you donate $5 to The Intercept today?

STAND WITH THE INTERCEPT →