US judge says there’s reason to believe US-based media nonprofit aided Hamas
Lawsuit filed by former hostages makes ‘plausible claim’ that Palestine Chronicle, whose employee held the Israelis captive, aided in their kidnapping
Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
A US federal judge on Tuesday said there was reason to believe a US nonprofit knew its employee was holding Israelis captive in Gaza and was affiliated with Hamas, marking a win for former hostages in a legal battle against the group.
The judge’s statement came in response to a lawsuit by freed hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv. All three were taken from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during Hamas’s October 2023 invasion of Israel.
They were held in Gaza by Abdallah Aljamal, according to the lawsuit and the IDF. Aljamal was a writer for the Palestine Chronicle, a news outlet run by the People Media Project, a US-based, tax-exempt nonprofit that is the focus of the lawsuit.
The hostages were rescued after 246 days in captivity in an IDF operation in June that also extracted hostage Noa Argamani, who was held separately nearby. Aljamal, his wife Fatima and his father Ahmad Aljamal were all killed during the hostage rescue mission. The family’s children survived.
The lawsuit argues that the Palestine Chronicle provided Aljamal with a platform to “disseminate Hamas propaganda,” providing material support to a US-designated terrorist organization, in violation of international law.
The defendants filed to dismiss the case in March. Tuesday’s letter was a response to that motion.
US District Judge Tiffany Cartwright said the hostages had “stated a plausible claim that [the Palestine Chronicle] aided and abetted their kidnapping and Hamas’s acts of terrorism.”
Cartwright added that the Palestine Chronicle’s claims that it was ignorant of Aljamal’s terror ties were “unpersuasive.”
Aljamal’s direct communications with the defendants, his public appearances as a Hamas spokesperson, and his social media support for Hamas “support a reasonable inference that [the Palestine Chronicle] knew Aljamal was affiliated with Hamas and involved in the October 7 attack,” the judge said.
She added that the close relationship between the Palestine Chronicle and Aljamal, and the timing of their coordination on work activities, were reasons to believe that the nonprofit’s payments to Aljaamal assisted him in holding the hostages.
The court denied the Palestine Chronicle’s motion to dismiss and an attempt to prevent the case from entering the discovery phase.
The lawsuit, backed by the National Jewish Advocacy Center, was filed in a federal court in Washington State, where the People Media Project is based.
The lawsuit has also revealed that Aljamal told the hostages that “Hamas was in contact and actively coordinating with its affiliates in the media and on college campuses,” according to an amended complaint filed in February that was first reported by The Times of Israel.
Aljamal told the hostages that “Hamas was going to ensure that the United States, as well as Jews and Israelis, are hated everywhere and that Hamas in Gaza was coordinating with its allies, including its allies in the media and on college campuses, to foment hatred against Israel and Jews,” the complaint said.
The Palestine Chronicle was reporting about US campus protests around the same time, and in August 2024, published an article about Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal urging university students to protest.
Aljamal was previously a spokesperson for the Hamas-run labor ministry in Gaza. He was open about his affiliation with the terror group, appearing publicly in Arabic media as a spokesperson and posting Hamas graphics and photos of his son wearing a Hamas headband on social media. He began writing for the Palestine Chronicle in 2019 while still serving as a spokesperson for Hamas’s labor ministry, according to the lawsuit.
Aljamal appears to have had foreknowledge of the Hamas attack. On October 7, at 5:43 a.m., immediately before the invasion, he posted a message on TikTok that said, “O God, guide us.. O God, grant us the victory that you promised.. O God, acceptance, acceptance, acceptance.. Your victory, O God,” followed by a heart emoji.
Later in the day, Aljamal praised the attack on Facebook.
He began writing for the Palestine Chronicle more frequently after the attack, sometimes publishing multiple articles per day, while he was holding the Israelis hostage and communicating with the outlet’s staff in the US.
Immediately after the hostage rescue, the Palestine Chronicle changed Aljamal’s description on its website from “correspondent” to “contributor,” then later described him as a “freelance contributor” writing on “a voluntary basis.” It also eulogized him in an article after his death, calling him a “well-known journalist murdered in Gaza,” and denied that he had been holding the hostages.
The hostages were aware that Aljamal was communicating with terror groups, recording footage and writing about their own captivity, the complaint said. All three were “terrorized” during their captivity, subjected to arbitrary punishment, physical threats, and physical and psychological abuse, the lawsuit said.
The outlet’s tax-exempt status means US taxpayers were subsidizing Hamas propaganda published to a US audience, the lawsuit argues, adding that the salary he was paid also helped him imprison the hostages.
The Times of Israel Community.