WASHINGTON — A Senate Republican launched an investigation Thursday into American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) over its “alleged ties to Hamas” and its funding of anti-Israel protest groups on US college campuses — including at Columbia University.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) announced the probe at the top of a hearing titled “Antisemitic Disruptions on Campus” — and named nine individuals, including AMP’s leader, with purported links to the US-designated foreign terror group.

“Today as chair of the health committee, I launched an investigation into the American Muslims for Palestine demanding answers about their activities on college campuses,” Cassidy said.

“This group’s leaders have ties to Hamas and helped create the group Students for Justice in Palestine,” he added. “I also requested information from the Justice Department and several universities on these groups.

“We must continue to build upon these efforts. As we saw at Columbia last month, pro-Hamas activists continue to wreak havoc on campuses,” he also said.

“Instead of standing up for Jewish students, too many university officials failed to respond or refused to even condemn these horrific occurrences.”

A 500% spike in antisemitic incidents at US universities and colleges occurred between 2023 and 2024, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacred 1,200 people in Israel — including 33 US citizens — an act that was praised the day after by Columbia professor of Modern Arab Politics Joseph Massad as “awesome” and a “stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance.”

Since then, 83% of Jewish students have reported witnessing or experiencing antisemitism on their campuses, per the ADL.

In a letter to AMP chairman Hatem Bazian, Cassidy listed the group’s troubling reported ties to Hamas as well as those of several of Bazian’s associates, citing research compiled by Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior vice president Jonathan Schanzer.

Those reported links include:

“AMP received this letter yesterday and will of course respond timely and in accordance with all applicable laws,” responded Christina Jump, AMP’s lead counsel.

“As AMP told the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability last year, and as AMP has responded numerous times in litigation, AMP functions entirely in the United States, raises funds only for itself and within the United States, and does not receive money from nor send money to any other countries,” Jump said.

“AMP functions to serve its stated mission of providing education within the United States on the rich history and culture of Palestine,” she went on.

 “AMP supports all students’ rights to free speech. AMP works with many student groups, including high school groups, multiple chapters of Muslim Student Associations, multiple chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and multiple chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine,” she added.

“AMP neither controls nor directs the budgets, finances or programming for any student group.”

Jump also referred to Cassidy’s letter as full of “unproven allegations from civil lawsuits.”

“In fact, one court ruled that the testimony and presumptions of Jonathan Schanzer, which the March 26 letter cites repeatedly as ‘support,’ does not constitute evidence, and gave it no weight,” she noted.

Senate HELP ranking member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) denounced “antisemitism on college campuses” or elsewhere “in the strongest possible terms” — but did not sign onto Cassidy’s investigation.

“Today we should also be clear that we, and again, I hope I speak for every member of this committee, condemn all forms of bigotry,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.

Carly Gammill, legal policy director the StandWithUs Center for Combatting Antisemitism, told the Senate panel the university demonstrations “not only distort and demonize Jewish identity, but also often include harassment, intimidation, violence, and threats of violence, which are no part of freedom of speech.”

“[While] biased, inaccurate classroom content … indoctrinates students through misinformation and creates a hostile learning environment, exacerbating the problem is the failure of many administrations to acknowledge the antisemitic nature of the activity and to enforce relevant campus policies,” Gammill said.

The Trump administration pulled $400 million in funding to Columbia University earlier this month for its failure to crack down on antisemitism — as well as backing away from a commitment to ban face masks shielding anti-Israel student protesters on the Morningside Heights campus.

Both Gammill and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive vice president of Chabad, added that Congress must pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act to strengthen federal anti-discrimination guidelines for probes.

Dr. Charles Asher Small, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), also told senators that $6.5 billion in foreign funding to colleges — much of it from Middle Eastern regimes — has contributed to the rise in campus antisemitism.

“Our ongoing research establishes that the Qatari regime donations have substantially impacted antisemitic discourse at American universities while also promoting anti-democratic values,” Small testified. “It should be noted that the Qatari regime maintains documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“Since October 7th, ISGAP has published 12 comprehensive reports revealing tens of billions of dollars in undocumented foreign funding coming to American universities, again primarily from the Qatari regime, unreported to the Department of Education as required by law,” he added. “Our analysis shows that between 2015 and 2020, that there’s been a 300% increase in antisemitic incidents as well.”

Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who sits on the HELP panel, also noted the anti-Israel activist group Code Pink’s possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) due to its links to China’s government.

“Code Pink isn’t just a far-left, anti-war protest group anymore,” Banks said, noting the founder’s marriage to a Shanghai-based millionaire who funds a pro-China network of protest groups. “It has become a direct tool of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Cassidy also sent letters to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and demanded answers on growing antisemitism from university leaders at Columbia, sister school Barnard College, George Washington University and UCLA.

“Activity that threatens the safety of others is not constitutionally protected free speech, and conduct
that violates campus rules should not be tolerated,” he warned, highlighting the same ties between AMP and SJP.

“Reports of individuals with ties to terrorist groups or their affiliates engaging with students on college campuses are also cause for the highest alarm.”

The Louisiana Republican has asked for further records from each higher education institution by April 9.

The probe comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court earlier this week by families of hostages held by Hamas who alleged that anti-Israel groups like SJP had “prior knowledge” of the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks.

The activist group proclaimed “we are back” in an Instagram post just hours before the deadly assault, according to the new lawsuit.