Nonprofit calls for IRS review of foundation funding pro-Palestine campus protest groups

The Internal Revenue Service has been asked by a nonprofit legal group on Wednesday to review the tax-exempt status of WESPAC Foundation, the group that fiscally sponsors several pro-Palestine groups, including one student group at the center of many of the campus protests that struck U.S. colleges and universities by storm last year. 

The letter to Acting IRS Commissioner Michael Faulkender from Zachor Legal Institute President Marc Greendorfer asks the federal agency to review the nonprofit status WESPEC over its sponsorship of “Within Our Lifetime,” a Palestinian-run organization based in New York City. The group, formerly known as Students for Justice in Palestine until 2019, participated in a May 2024 protest in Brooklyn that turned chaotic and ended in a brawl with New York Police officers. 

According to NY1, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry later said 41 people were arrested during the protest, adding that the demonstration “was not a peaceful protest by some [...] protesters spit on and threw water at officers, lit 'incendiary devices' and rode on the roof of an MTA bus. One-third of those arrested had “a prior arrest history for other non-peaceful protests,” he added.

Within Our Lifetime often places itself at the center of protest actions at prestigious universities, such as Columbia University, where anti-Israel radicals occupied sections of the university’s campus in October 2023 alongside other pro-Palestine student groups. The school's student paper, The Columbia Spectator reported that the organization made a "call to protest" there.

In May 2023, a WOL organizer delivered a commencement speech at CUNY law school calling for a “revolution” against America’s “oppressive” institutions and for her graduating class to “fuel the fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world.”

WESPEC did not respond to a call seeking comment. 

Finding out who WESPAC really is

“Based on WESPAC Foundation’s fiscal sponsorship of an organization called, ‘Within Our Lifetime’, we believe WESPAC Foundation may be in violation of one or more requirements for tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3), including but not limited to advocating for political violence, advocating for violence against the United States and Israel, advocating for violence against police officers, and engaging in events wherein terrorist organizations are revered,” Zachor's Faulkender wrote. 

You can read their letter below: 

The WESPAC Foundation accepts donations from the public, some of which are spent on projects with Within Our Lifetime and several other pro-Palestine or anti-Zionist groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine, according to data collected by NGO Monitor. Within Our Lifetime was created by a co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine and rebranded itself as "Within Our Lifetime." 

Despite the name change, Within our Lifetime still provides encouragement and inflammatory resources to anti-Israeli protesters, as well as targeting Jewish-owned businesses and their customers. 

A set of nesting dolls

Its arrangements with WESPAC are opaque. The arrangement appears to use "dark money" and, as an intermediary, allows organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine to conceal donations because of the pass through, a congressional Means and Ways committee member said. SJP’s website once told donors that any donations sent to the National Students for Justice in Palestine organization are processed through the “Wespac Foundation Inc.,” Just the News previously reported. That webpage has since been deleted.

Within Our Lifetime has expressed public support for violence against Israel by Palestinian terror group Hamas, clashed with NYPD on multiple occasions, participated in the campus occupation at Columbia, and vandalized the New York Times building. 

“Given the severity of these claims and the potential violation of federal law, a thorough investigation into WESPAC Foundation’s fiscal sponsorship of “Within Our Lifetime” is warranted,” Faulkender asserted. 

The request follows a similar letter to the IRS from several Republican senators last year. They raised concerns that WESPAC, alongside National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), the AJP Educational Foundation (AJP) and the Tides Foundation, had engaged in activities “warranting revocation of their tax-exempt statuses,” Just the News reported. 

“It is long-established precedent that when 501(c)(3) organizations have ‘planned activities that violate laws’ or engage in activities designed ‘to induce the commission of a crime or if the accomplishment of the purpose is otherwise against public policy,’ the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has grounds to revoke their tax-exempt status,” the senators wrote.