State Depart­ment pressed by GOP over fund­ing anti-Israel group accused of ter­ror ties

EXCLUSIVE — A pair of House Repub­li­cans are ask­ing the State Depart­ment to inves­ti­gate its deci­sion to fund a Gaza Strip-based group accused of “coop­er­at­ing with” and “sup­port­ing” Pales­tin­ian ter­ror­ists.
The Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er first report­ed Wednes­day that the State Depart­ment between August and Sep­tem­ber award­ed $90,000 com­bined in grants to the Phoenix Cen­ter for Research and Field Stud­ies, an enti­ty the Israeli watch­dog NGO Mon­i­tor says part­ners with lead­ers of Pales­tin­ian Islam­ic Jihad and the Pop­u­lar Front for the Lib­er­a­tion of Pales­tine, two U.S.-designated ter­ror groups. Reps. Chris Smith (R‑NJ) and Gus Bili­rakis (R‑FL) are now call­ing on Sec­re­tary of State Antony Blinken to take “reme­di­al action” and pro­vide an “expla­na­tion” for the cash, accord­ing to a let­ter on Thurs­day after­noon.
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: WHAT WILL BE OPEN AND WHAT WILL BE CLOSED
“We respect­ful­ly request that you look into this mat­ter and, if the mat­ter proves to be as stat­ed by NGO Mon­i­tor, we request fur­ther to be informed how the selec­tion of Phoenix Cen­ter hap­pened, what reme­di­al action the depart­ment will take in regard to these grants, and what action …