Texas AG Joins Multistate Coalition in Case Against US Groups With Alleged Ties to Hamas

The 25-state legal brief seeks to ensure that U.S. organizations supporting Hamas are ‘brought to justice,’ Ken Paxton’s office said.

Pro-Palestinian protesters march outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, on Aug. 19, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a multistate coalition’s amicus brief in support of a lawsuit against groups that allegedly support the activities of the Hamas terrorist group, his office said in a Jan. 6 statement.

On Oct. 8, 2023, just a day after Hamas’s attack in Israel, “radical groups” American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) “declared that they were ‘Part of’ a ‘Unity Intifada’ under Hamas’s ‘unified command,’” the statement said.

On May 1, 2024, a survivor group, family members of people murdered in the attack, civilians under fire from Hamas’s ongoing terrorism, and people displaced by terror activities filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against AMP and NSJP under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act.

The multistate amicus brief was filed to ensure that supporters of terrorism are “brought to justice,” the statement from the attorney general’s office said.

“Radical Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas must be decimated and dismantled, and that includes their domestic supporting branches,” Paxton said.

“Terrorism relies on complex networks and intermediaries, and the law must be enforced against those who knowingly provide material support. My office will continue to defend Americans who have been brutally affected by terrorism and ensure accountability under the law.”

According to the lawsuit, NSJP was founded by AMP and is used to “operate a propaganda machine for Hamas and its affiliates across American college campuses.”

On Oct. 8, AMP and NSJP disseminated a manifesto claiming that they seek “liberation,” which is defined as a “real process that requires confrontation by any means necessary,” including via armed struggle and other violent acts, the complaint said. The manifesto stated that “all [resistance] is legitimate, and all of it is necessary.”

“The plain text of the NSJP Toolkit confirms that AMP and NSJP do not merely assist Hamas’s ongoing terror campaign abroad—they perpetuate it in the United States,” it said.

The amicus brief, led by the attorneys general from Virginia and Iowa, was filed on Dec. 30 at the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on behalf of attorneys general from 25 states, including Texas.

In the brief, the states argued that NSJP and AMP “should be taken at their word” when they say that they are part of a “Unity Intifada” under Hamas’s unified command.

“Defendants here are alleged to have provided material support for Hamas, the brutal terrorist regime that not only oppresses millions in Gaza but that also murdered more than a thousand innocents and kidnapped hundreds more,” the brief reads.

“States have an interest in ensuring that valid claims brought under material support statutes are allowed to be litigated in court and that any violators are held accountable.”

The Epoch Times reached out to AMP and NSJP for comments but did not receive a response by publication time.

This is one of the latest actions taken by Texas targeting Islamic terrorism in the state.

On Nov. 18, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a proclamation designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.

In a Nov. 18 statement, Abbott’s office said the designation empowers authorities to implement heightened enforcement against the two organizations and their affiliates. The organizations are also blocked from buying or acquiring land in Texas.

On Nov. 20, CAIR announced that it had sued Abbott and Paxton to block enforcement of the declaration, calling it “unconstitutional” and “defamatory.”

“The lawsuit we have filed today is our first step towards defeating Governor Abbott again so that our nation protects free speech and due process for all Americans,” said Lena Masri, CAIR litigation director and general counsel.

“No civil rights organizations are safe if a governor can baselessly and unilaterally declare any of them terrorist groups, ban them from buying land, and threaten them with closure.”

According to the group, the following national statement against terrorism has appeared on its website since 2009: “We unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the U.S. Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”

In a Dec. 23 statement, Paxton’s office said it filed a response to the lawsuit to defend Texas’s “lawful designation” of CAIR and Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations under Texas law.

The response notes “in part that the local CAIR councils rely entirely on speculative claims and political disagreement with the State’s national security determinations and laws, leaving their argument baseless,” the office said.

“Radical Islamist terrorist groups are anti-American, and the infiltration of these dangerous individuals into Texas must be stopped,” Paxton said. “My office will continue to defend the Governor’s lawful, accurate declaration that CAIR is an FTO, as well as Texas’s right to protect itself from organizations with documented ties to foreign extremist movements.”