Thomas Nides, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Israel, personally signed off on nearly $1 million in grants to fund investigations of Israel for “documentation of legal or security sector violations and housing, land and property rights,” Adam Kredo reported in The Washington Free Beacon.
Citing documents the America First Legal Foundation received in a Freedom of Information Act request, Kredo reported that Nides personally approved the U.S. State Department to provide $987,654 for organizations accusing Israel of human-rights abuses.
A congressional investigation last year centered on these tax-payer-funded monies with critics claiming that it fit hand-in-glove with the BDS movement’s tactics and objective.
“As a policy matter, it is wholly unacceptable for the State Department to fund NGOs to delegitimize and isolate Israel,” critics wrote last year. At the time, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that the Biden administration was using “American taxpayer money to subsidize the international NGO campaign to demonize and isolate Israel.”
“The ambassador’s involvement in the funding effort is certain to attract congressional scrutiny as Israel’s defenders on Capitol Hill worry the Biden administration is alienating the Jewish state,” Kredo reported.
