WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Former Rep. Cori Bush registered as a foreign agent while contracting with the International Federation for Rights and Development.
  • IFRD will pay Bush and campaign manager Stephany Spaulding $25,000 for delegation work continuing through January.
  • Bush’s contract calls for recruiting current and former lawmakers and prominent Democratic figures to visit the West Bank.
  • IFRD does not disclose its financial backers but claims it receives no funding from foreign governments.
  • Bush and IFRD did not respond to requests for comment about the agreement or planned delegations.

Former Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri has registered as a foreign agent for a European organization that plans to send delegations to the West Bank. The former Squad member will lead what the group calls “fact-finding” missions as part of a campaign sharply critical of Israel.

Bush signed an independent contractor agreement with the International Federation for Rights and Development, according to disclosures filed last week under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. IFRD describes itself as a Brussels-based “human rights” nonprofit.

Under the contract, IFRD will pay $25,000 to Bush and her friend and campaign manager, Stephany Spaulding, for work continuing through January. Their assignment is to “coordinate fact-finding delegations” to Gaza and the West Bank.

The project is intended to elevate “the narratives of Palestinian farmers and residents with settlers in the West Bank and other occupied territories.” The agreement provides $6,000 a month in compensation, plus another $7,000 for handling FARA compliance.

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IFRD is led by Palestinian filmmaker Gamaal El Attar, but the organization does not disclose its financial backers. It claims that it receives no money from foreign governments, while Bush’s filing offers details about its organized public relations campaign.

Bush visited the West Bank region last month and described the mission in an Oct. 8 social media post. That came one day after the third anniversary of the massacre of Israelis led by Hamas.

“Let's go to the West Bank and stand with the Palestinian who are being attacked by (invaders) settlers,” Bush wrote. She also posted photographs from Ramallah showing her husband helping landowner Yasser Alkam clear overgrowth from property he had not farmed for three years because of alleged threats.

Alkam, an American of Palestinian descent, appears to play a central role in IFRD’s initiative. He operated a family law practice in Anaheim, California, until 2022 and has hosted American activists and elected officials while appearing on American broadcasts about alleged settler attacks on his olive farm.

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Among Alkam’s recent visitors were Climate Action New Jersey director Ben Dziobek and Katie Bansil, a climate activist and former House candidate in New Jersey. Social media posts show that they participated in IFRD sponsored olive harvesting trips to his farm.

Bansil claimed that “young settlers came and tried to provoke and intimidate us into leaving.” Dziobek alleged that Israeli soldiers “pointed guns” at him and other travelers, while referring to the soldiers as the “Israeli Occupation Forces.”

New York City councilwoman Julie Won also featured Alkam in a video last month. Won said the IDF detained her during an olive harvesting trip organized by IFRD, and she later told American news organizations that she was “shell shocked” by the experience.

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International activists have increasingly focused on conflict between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank. The olive harvesting expeditions seek video depicting Palestinian farmers as victims of settlers, though activists can enter volatile situations and be removed by Israeli troops.

After her trip, Bush appeared with Alkam on fired MSNBC personality Joy Reid’s podcast. Bush claimed that the Israeli military subjected her to treatment resembling Jim Crow during the visit.

Alkam appeared on former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s One America News Network program in September. He made the unverified claim that Israeli settlers had burned more than 40 homes and uprooted more than 15,000 olive trees in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya.

It remains unclear whether Bush recruited the activists who previously participated in IFRD trips or coordinated with journalists for the organization. Her contract says she will recruit current and former senators, House members, “prominent Democratic Party figures and influential political leaders” for West Bank visits through January.

Bush’s prior statements have raised questions about the rigor of her planned missions. After losing her 2024 Democratic primary, she targeted AIPAC, which had spent heavily to support her opponent, Rep. Wesley Bell.

“They're about to see this other Cori, this other side,” Bush told supporters. She then declared, “AIPAC, I'm coming to tear your kingdom down,” followed by, “All they did was radicalize me, so now they need to be afraid.”

The Biden administration condemned those remarks. Bush and IFRD did not respond to requests for comment about the foreign agent agreement or the planned delegations.

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