According to an Israeli strategist, Linda Sarsour of Women’s March fame raised $160,000 for the victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, but only $10,000 of that money was actually by the synagogue.
“Correction: ~$160K was raised as part of one general cemeteries campaign that pre-dates the TOL massacre and ~$240K was raised as part of the TOL campaign after the massacre. The $10K was from the first campaign. I was wrong about the 10%, still troubling,” said Hen Mezzig on Twitter.
Mezzig originally said that Sarsour raised $400,000 for the Tree of Life Synagogue victims. But pocketing $150,000 after fundraising off a tragedy is no better than pocketing $390,000. It is still a major scam.
Mezzig also blasted The Forward, which he described as a propaganda arm for Sarsour, for a deceptive article written to protect Sarsour.
“The propaganda arm (The Forward) tried to twist it, in another deceiving article by the ever so smart journalist, [Aiden] Pink, but the truth is clear,” he said.
The article, though is still very clear. It quotes CelebrateMercy founder Tarek El-Messidi who co-organized the campaign with Sarsour. He said that of the total amount raised off of the tragedy, all but the $10,000 will be distributed to the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, not to Tree of Life:
To that end, El-Messidi said on Tuesday, one of his employees had that very day mailed a $10,000 check to Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed last month. He hopes the money will be used to repair the building, which was damaged with bullet holes from the shooting. He predicted it would arrive in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
That donation is separate from the second, $238,634 campaign, initiated to help victims of the shooting and their families. It reached its goal of $150,000 in 50 hours; El-Messidi wrote at that point that he would send that amount to the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh to be distributed locally, and the rest would be kept for “projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration, dialogue, and solidarity.”
Back in 2017, Sarsour and El-Messidi ran a fundraising campaign together, allegedly to raise money for fixing a vandalized Jewish cemetery, which came under fire for similar questionable allocations of cash.
In her typical anti-Semitic way, Sarsour blamed “right-wing Zionists” for the controversy, and denied that the funds were improperly allocated.