The Guardline
Democratic lawmakers are blasting a controversial Gaza aid group funded by the U.S. government for tapping armed members of a motorcycle club that one legislator called an “Islamophobic hate group.”
Sen. Pete Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., said in statements that they were outraged that a contractor for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation employed members of the Infidels Motorcycle Club. At least 10 members of the Infidels were employed by the GHF’s security contractor, UG Solutions, according to a recent BBC report.
“It is unacceptable for the United States to fund an organization tied to an Islamophobic hate group.”
“It is unacceptable for the United States to fund an organization tied to an Islamophobic hate group,” Casten said in a statement to The Intercept.
Casten led an unsuccessful push this week to bar government funding for the aid group, and Welch has alleged that its employees may be complicit in Israeli war crimes.
“The U.S. government is sending violent motorcycle gangs to Gaza in the middle of a famine,” Welch told The Intercept in a statement. “The American people deserve answers.”
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and UG Solutions did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The legislators’ concern centers on the Infidels Motorcycle Club. The group has not been publicly designated as an outlaw motorcycle gang or accused of violence by law enforcement, but a 2014 report by federal authorities said a chapter in Florida, where some of the Infidels in Gaza hail from, had been “observed riding and associating” with an outlaw gang.
The Infidels describe themselves as a club “for Patriotic Americans and our supporting allies” that is opposed to the “Jihadist movement” and “Islamic extremism.”
Clad in Crusader-style crosses sewn to their jackets and tattooed on their skin, the Infidels cruise highways in 15 states and Germany.
More recently, a member employed by a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation contractor, Johnny Mulford, used the Infidels as a recruiting network to hire at least 10 club members for GHF, according to the BBC.
The Intercept previously reported on Mulford’s membership in the Infidels and leadership role at UG Solutions. Mulford and the Infidels did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Seven club members are in oversight positions at GHF aid sites in Gaza, the BBC reported. One club member posted on his Facebook page an image of contractors in Gaza posing with rifles and a “Make Gaza Great Again” sign.
Palestinians Killed Near Aid Sites
The involvement of Infidels members is especially troubling to critics of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation because of the Israeli-backed group’s record at aid distribution sites in Gaza. Other aid groups have criticized the foundation for using a militarized model relying largely on American military veterans.
At least 859 people have been killed near the foundation’s aid sites since it began distributing food in May, a group of United Nations experts said last month. The group claimed that Israeli forces and private security contractors were using “open indiscriminate fire on people seeking aid.” The U.N. group also alleged that there have also been forced disappearances at aid distribution sites.
The State Department approved $30 million in early funding for the foundation despite an internal government assessment raising “critical concerns” about its model.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has denied that any UG Solutions employees have shot Palestinians in Gaza. The group says it has distributed 162 million meals to Palestinians.
Earlier this week Casten, the Democratic representative, tried to offer an amendment to the annual defense budget bill that would bar further funding to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
That push died in the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee before the broader bill was approved Wednesday, a move that Casten criticized in a statement calling the Infidels an “Islamophobic hate group.”
“The United States must immediately halt all funding to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. GHF’s operations have caused deadly chaos at aid distribution sites,” Casten said. “House Republicans’ refusal to even allow a vote on my amendment to end GHF funding — and to ensure that humanitarian aid to Gaza is delivered through established and legitimate international organizations — is deeply disappointing and indefensible.”
