Rep. Ilhan Omar’s campaign recently paid more than $1,500 to a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit linked to a Palestinian university accused of having ties to terrorism, according to new Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The organization, called the Palestine House of Freedom—also known as “Dar Alhurriya”—operates just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. A video on its website says the group is “dedicated to the liberation of Palestine” and supports “the dismantling of apartheid in Palestine and the establishment of a free, democratic state from the river to the sea.” Its mission statement declares that Israel “operates as an apartheid state” and that the group aims to educate lawmakers, media, and the public to promote “a free democratic Palestine from the River to the Sea with equal rights.”
According to campaign filings, Omar’s political committee, Ilhan for Congress, paid the Palestine House of Freedom $1,559.25 for “event tickets” in September. The records do not specify which event the purchase was for.
The nonprofit gained attention earlier this year after hosting a June fundraiser for Birzeit University, a Palestinian school accused of harboring terrorist sympathies. Reports have noted that the university’s student council is dominated by the Hamas-affiliated Al-Wafaa bloc, and campus events have featured parades with mock suicide bomb vests and rockets, according to Memri TV. Fox News Digital found that the Al-Wafaa bloc has repeatedly won student elections at Birzeit since the 1990s, including victories in 2022 and 2023.
Following the 2023 election, then-Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh told the Middle East Monitor that the victory demonstrated Hamas’s “ability to adapt to changes, overcome complexities, and fill the void created by arrests, martyrdom, or deportation.” He added that Hamas remains “unbreakable” and will continue to confront “the occupier, oppression and terrorism.” In 2017, another senior Hamas spokesperson also congratulated Birzeit’s student body after similar election results.
In response to Birzeit’s associations, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York and Rep. Tim Walberg of Michigan, who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, sent a letter to Harvard University on Sept. 29 criticizing its partnership with the school. They described Birzeit as “an institution whose student body overwhelmingly supports Hamas” and one that “explicitly endorses a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.” Harvard later announced it would not renew its cooperation agreement with Birzeit pending an internal review, according to The Harvard Crimson.
The Palestine House of Freedom’s June fundraiser—titled From Birzeit and Beyond: How Academia Shapes Resistance and Resilience—stated that proceeds would go directly to Birzeit University.
Omar, first elected in 2018 as one of Congress’s first Muslim women, has faced recurring backlash for controversial remarks about Israel and the United States, including her comment that “some people did something” in reference to the 9/11 attacks and her earlier statement that “Israel has hypnotized the world,” for which she later apologized.
In September, a House vote to censure Omar for comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk narrowly failed.
Fox News Digital said it reached out to Harvard University, the Palestine House of Freedom, Omar’s office, and her campaign for comment but did not receive a response.
