Here is what the Middle East Children's Alliance is telling the Internal Revenue Service per its Form 990-EZ for July 1 2002 through June 30 2003.

This (and what is reported in Form 990 for the period July 1 2003 through June 30 2004) seems to differ considerably, however, from what MECA actually does.

MECA appears to be in violation of U.S. tax laws as they apply to nonprofit organizations, since these statutes specify that funding cannot be used for propaganda or for political purposes. The laws also bar collecting and funneling tax-free donations to an entity (the ISM) that engages in criminal activity: This organization neglected to tell the IRS that it is raising funds for an organization (the ISM) that is involved in criminal activities in Israel. The ISM’s website states:

Donations may also be sent to:
ISM - USA
PO BOX 5073
BERKELEY CA 94705-0073
USA

Please make checks out to: "MECA (ISM-USA Fund)".
The Middle East Children’s Alliance is the fiscal sponsor for ISM-USA. They are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Their tax exemption number is: 94-3074600.

The same ISM website that MECA uses to proclaim itself the fiscal sponsor for the ISM all over the United States also shows that the ISM is openly involved with criminal interference (euphemistically called "direct-action methods") against Israeli security procedures against terrorism.

The International Solidarity Movement's own Web site, not "Zionist" propaganda, confirms that it is indeed conspiring to violate the laws of another country.

Internationals with the ISM are not in Palestine to teach nonviolent resistance. Palestinians resist nonviolently ever day. The ISM lends support to the Palestinian resistance to the occupation and their demand for freedom through the following activities:

* Direct Action - challenging crippling checkpoints and curfew, confronting tanks and demolition equipment, removing roadblocks, participating in nonviolent demonstrations, accompanying farmers to their fields and protecting families whose homes are threatened with demolition.

Although participating in nonviolent demonstrations is legal in both the United States and Israel, the highlighted items are crimes in both countries. If you don't believe that, try interfering with a "crippling checkpoint" in any U.S. airport by, for example, trying to help unknown persons bypass it and see what happens to you. Make sure you have a good lawyer and bail money first, though. The above evidence indicates very strongly that MECA is diverting 501(c)(3) tax-exempt money to fund illegal activities abroad.

ISM/PSM leaves no doubt, meanwhile, that it is sucking at MECA's financial teat.

Donations may also be sent to:
ISM - USA
PO BOX 5073
BERKELEY CA 94705-0073
USA

Please make checks out to: “MECA (ISM-USA Fund)”.
The Middle East Children’s Alliance is the fiscal sponsor for ISM-USA. They are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Their tax exemption number is: 94-3074600.

Donations through MECA or PayPal are handled by the International Solidarity Movement - USA.

We remind ISM/PSM members with inside knowledge of the network's funding or access to affiliate organizations' books that they can earn substantial rewards by reporting any "problems" to the Internal Revenue Service. Also, complaints against tax-exempt entities can be filed here:

Internal Revenue Service
Exempt Organizations Examination Division
1100 Commerce Street
ATTN: SE:T:EO:E
Dallas, TX 75242

It's useful to include the organization's Employer Identification Number, which ISM/PSM provides for MECA above.

Next we come to this little item in MECA's tax returns:

Now I am not an attorney, tax or otherwise, but perhaps one should take a very close look at what MECA actually does on tax-exempt money. It seems to have neglected to tell the IRS about any of the following:

Here is what MECA actually does:

* Calls for antiwar activism and condemns U.S. foreign policy:

o Support Cindy Sheehan

o "Bring the troops home now, stop the war in Iraq"

o "Support the Palestinian people's right of return"

o "Military recruiters out of our schools"

o "U.S. out of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Afghanistan"

Promotes an academic boycott of Israel.
Is a coalition member of ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice.
Describes the U.S. "occupation" of Iraq as "illegal" and genocidal:

o It also accuses the U.S. of "purposefully" targeting civilian areas

o "The Human Cost of War in Iraq" also makes this accusation: "In March 2003, the US, backed by the UK and Spain, launched an illegal 'pre-emptive' attack on Iraq. Since then the US and UK have illegally occupied the nation…."
* Hosts a photo gallery of partisan anti-U.S. and anti-Israel protests. One photo thanks Rep. Barbara Lee, D-CA, by name. [The page is now empty but there was plenty there when we looked at it-- and downloaded it.]

The FrontPage article continues (again citing much information from MECA and ISM themselves)

Uda Walker

If you’re wondering what any of this has to do with supporting children in the Middle East, and why MECA lays claim to tax-exempt status when it does not even provide support for all Middle East children (services or support for Israeli children maimed in suicide bombing attacks are not included), you are not alone. A part of the "Palestinian-led" MECA is the fundraising and propaganda arm of the PLO, albeit run locally by American radicals and anarchists. Furthermore, MECA’s own website clearly states:

Structure

The ISM is not an organization, but rather a movement which all organizations, groups and/or individuals who agree with our principles can join. The ISM is based in Palestine and is led by Palestinians on the ground. Many ISM support groups around the world assist the ISM by disseminating information, recruiting and training individuals to join us. (Emphasis added.)

MECA operates under the auspices and lobbying control of the Palestinian Authority, an activity which by federal law demands that it be registered as an agent for a foreign power by the U.S. Justice Department. This is something that has not been done. The group has also seems to have lied on it tax returns about engaging in political activities, which should result in the IRS at minimum pulling its nonprofit status. Its money is fungible -- and once it gets to the Palestine Authority or Iraq -- there’s no way to know how much of it makes its way to terrorist groups. Barbara Lubin once spent time in the company of the terrorist group Hezbollah, the same group that killed 241 U.S. military personnel in 1983 in a terrorist attack. She considers them "normal shleps." It hardly strains credulity to suppose that her group sympathizes with Hezbollah’s aims. Consider, too, that MECA’s offices in Berkeley eagerly display Palestinian propaganda that attacks Israel: From the MECA website:

[Your tax dollars at work providing food, medicine, toys, and other assistance to children in the Middle East]

But MECA’s solidarity with terror goes beyond mere agitprop. MECA has promoted a clinic in Gaza, the Union of Health Work Committees, whose previous manager was a member of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist group listed with the U.S. State Department. (This despite the fact that the U.S. State department last year required that non-governmental charities in the Palestinian Authority sign agreements that any USAID funding they receive specifically not be channeled to aid terrorists or terrorism.) The clinic is now run by Mona al-Farra. The MECA website openly sought donations for Dr. Mona al-Farra’s clinic, specifically naming her even after Mona al-Farra refused to sign the State Department’s agreement. Her reason? She claimed that all her patients are terrorists.

MECA may provide money for some noble services to Palestinian children, but it also funds incitement and helps to roil the Israel/Palestinian conflict. Everytime MECA receives donations from supporters, the American taxpayer makes up the loss of income tax revenue. American taxpayers already subsidize the Palestinian Authority with billions of dollars in foreign aid, much of which has already been pilfered by a corrupt Palestinian leadership. It is in their interest, then, that the Middle East Children’s Alliance North American operations should come under close IRS scrutiny.

Remember that Al Capone never went to jail for killing people or running bootleg liquor, they got him for not paying his income taxes. It was also "problems" with the use of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt money that broke the Million Mom March's back in 2000 so it is of the utmost importance that Civilization's defenders press this kind of attack against ISM/PSM's funding network as extensively as possible. They'll have a lot of trouble flying their guests and speakers to Georgetown University, and their activists to Israel or anywhere else, when their tax-exempt money is cut off.