AFT president Randi Weingarten called ANERA, an aid organization flagged by human rights watchdogs, one of the union’s ‘partner organizations’
The American Federation of Teachers is fundraising for a Gaza aid organization that has been accused of working with Hamas-linked groups.
In a letter last week, AFT president Randi Weingarten asked its members to donate to its “partner organization,” American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA).
ANERA, which says it “provides humanitarian assistance and sustainable development to advance the well-being of refugees and other vulnerable communities in Palestine,” is one of the largest nonprofits operating in the West Bank in Gaza. It’s also worked with Hamas-run agencies like the Ministry of Social Development, which is led by Hamas leader and U.S.-designated terrorist Ghazi Hamad, prompting criticism from human rights watchdogs.
The U.N. has promoted ANERA’s work with the ministry, but the nonprofit nonetheless says it has a “longstanding ‘no contact’ policy with Hamas.”
AFT’s fundraising for ANERA is fueling criticism that teachers’ unions have become a hub of anti-Israel activism. Last month, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, voted to boycott the Anti-Defamation League over the Jewish rights group’s stance against anti-Semitism.
While NEA leadership rejected the vote, they also released a 2025 handbook that omitted Jews from a plan to teach Holocaust remembrance and said they plan to educate the public that Israel was founded through “forced, violent displacement and dispossession,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
On July 29, Weingarten penned an open letter asking union members to “join with me and other AFT members in donating today to the AFT Disaster Relief Fund for Gaza Humanitarian Aid.”
“Your contribution will go immediately to relief work on the ground by the AFT partner organization American Near East Refugee Aid (known as Anera), a nonprofit charity with decades of experience working in the area,” Weingarten wrote. “One hundred percent of your donation will go to Anera, because the AFT covers any fees for collecting funds.”
Weingarten’s call has already made an impact, with AFT’s Philadelphia chapter announcing last week that it donated an unspecified amount to the fundraiser, according to the North American Values Institute, an advocacy group that documents anti-Israel and anti-American radicalism in the K-12 education system.
Mika Heller, director of research at the North American Values Institute, told the Free Beacon that Weingarten’s donation request was an “egregious example” of the AFT “putting dedication to ‘social justice unionism’ ahead of responsibilities to union members and even to students.”
“The AFT should answer for whether it was aware of ANERA’s work with organizations tied to Hamas,” Heller said. “Members have a right to know where their money is going and how the AFT determines its partners.”
Weingarten defended the partnership, telling the Free Beacon that ANERA is an “independent entity with great credibility.”
“They are absolutely not connected to Hamas or any terrorist organization, and if they were, we obviously wouldn’t be donating to them,” said Weingarten.
In January, the human rights watchdog group NGO Monitor released a report detailing connections between ANERA and Hamas-linked organizations.
It pointed to a U.N. description of a 2023 building project in Gaza that noted ANERA worked “in coordination with the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) and the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (MoPWH)” to “finalize and approved [sic] the selection of beneficiaries on the standard shelter cluster criteria.”
According to the NGO Monitor report, Hamas has “exercised effective control over the MoSD in Gaza for several years.” In 2019, the terrorist group appointed Hamad—who vowed in the wake of Oct. 7 to launch “a second, a third, a fourth” attack—to oversee the MoSD. Last year, the U.S. Department of Treasury added him to its designated terrorist list.
The building project wasn’t the first time ANERA worked with MoSD. In 2021, the aid organization launched a “women’s empowerment program in Gaza” and said it “selects the women according to predefined criteria in coordination with the Ministry of Social Development and local organizations that serve women.”
ANERA called reports about its alleged connections with Hamas “misinformation.” The group said it “has a longstanding ‘no contact’ policy with Hamas” and all of its “partners, employees and vendors are vetted through U.S. OFAC-compliant software” and a U.S. government system. An ANERA spokesman declined to comment but provided a link to a webpage detailing that “policy.”
A separate report the Middle East Forum published last year showed additional partnerships between ANERA and additional Hamas-linked organizations. These groups include the Bayader Association for Environment and Development and the Islamic Relief, which held a ceremony with Hamas leaders in 2023 to celebrate their coordination on a development project, according to the Middle East Forum.
ANERA, which has received funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, has also worked on projects with the Unlimited Friends Association, a group that has also hosted events with Hamas leaders and benefits for families of “martyrs and prisoners,” the Middle East Forum reported.
Several ANERA staffers have publicly expressed anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist views, according to the report. The group’s Gaza project coordinator, Ibrahim Najjar, has praised the “brave prisoners” in jail in Israel and posted support for Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin, the Middle East Forum reported.
Mousa Shawwa, an ANERA staffer who was killed in an Israeli strike last year, reportedly endorsed a call on social media for God to “erase the Jews.”
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