MTA Rank and File for Palestine advertise events with organizations tied to terrorism

MTA Rank and File for Palestine founder, Merrie Najimy, is former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

Why are teachers in Massachusetts advertising events alongside organizations affiliated with terror groups?

MTA Rank and File for Palestine has used its instagram platform to advertise events with groups affiliated with terrorist organizations.

First, they advertised a “Gaza will rise” rally alongside Palestinian Youth Movement - a group with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Samidoun, listed as a terrorist entity by the United States and Canada.

Worse still, MTA Rank and File for Palestine have advertised an event sponsored by Islamic Relief USA and Helping Hand for Relief and Development - both “charities” found to have ties to terrorist organizations.

Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) has hosted events with a proxy for Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, has a history of platforming extremist speakers who are openly antisemitic and call for Jihad, and is a listed donor for Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami. According to Sam Westrop of the Middle East Forum:

“Both HHRD and ICNA Relief are listed by the violent South Asian Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami as donors to its welfare arm, Al-Khidmat Foundation, which is closely involved with the Kashmiri jihadist organization Hizbul Mujahideen, and which proudly boasts of funding Palestinian terrorist group Hamas for its “just jihad.””

ICNA was previously covered in our Substack.

Finally, HHRD is the subject of an on-going congressional investigation into federal grants it has received even after its terror links were exposed.

Meanwhile, Islamic Relief has documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Will president of the MTA, Max Page, offer a rebuke of Najimy’s MTA Rank and File for Palestine? It seems unlikely given Page’s close relationship to Najimy, he was Najimy’s VP after all, and he stood by her after Najimy moderated the heavily criticized MTA “anti-racism taskforce” webinar on “anti-Palestinian racism” which included deeply antisemitic tropes.

But perhaps the fact that Najimy’s group of Massachusetts Teachers Association members is supporting and promoting organizations associated with terror groups and Islamist extremists might get Page to take a stand?