The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has launched an investigation into American Muslims for Palestine and its activities on college campuses, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced on Thursday.

Cassidy, the HELP committee’s chairman, revealed the probe while delivering his opening statement at the panel’s hearing on campus antisemitism. The news marks the first time the Senate has investigated the organization. American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is an anti-Israel nonprofit that bolsters National Students for Justice in Palestine, which in turn supports SJP groups on campuses nationwide.

“Today, as chair of the HELP committee, I launched an investigation into the American Muslims for Palestine, demanding answers about their activities on college campuses. This group’s leaders have ties to Hamas and helped create the group Students for Justice in Palestine. I also requested information from the Justice Department and several universities on these groups. We must continue to build upon these efforts,” Cassidy said. 

The Louisiana senator sent letters on Wednesday evening to AMP Chairman Hatem Bazian, as well as Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel. 

In his letter to Patel and Bondi, Cassidy requested answers on what their respective agencies were doing to “investigate and address threats posed by outside groups to safety on college campuses.” His letter to Bazian asks for clarification about AMP’s “past or present ties to groups associated with the Foreign Terrorist Organization Hamas.”

Members of AMP’s leadership, including Bazian, have faced scrutiny over their ties to now-defunct charities including the Islamic Association for Palestine and the Holy Land Foundation, which were shut down after the federal government found they had provided financial support to Hamas. 

Bazian, critics note, was a frequent speaker at Islamic Association for Palestine conferences. He also founded National SJP.

As part of the investigation, Cassidy also sent letters to the presidents of The George Washington University, University of California Los Angeles, Columbia University and its affiliate Barnard College requesting information about SJP and AMP activities on their campuses.

In the previous Congress, the House Ways and Means Committee probed AMP and urged the Internal Revenue Service to revoke its tax-exempt status. The Virginia attorney general is also investigating AMP and seeking to uncover its private donor list. 

AAMP is also facing an ongoing lawsuit by the family of David Boim, an American killed in a Hamas terrorist attack in the West Bank in 1996. Another civil suit filed last year accuses the group of providing material support for Hamas in violation of federal law.

The Boim case alleges that AMP is an “alter ego” of the Islamic Association for Palestine and the Holy Land Foundation and is responsible for the civil judgement against them.