NYU Offers Credit for Workshop Led by Lebanese Organization With Ties to Alleged Terror-Affiliated Groups
Kevorkian Center partners with Visualizing Palestine, an organization that collaborates with alleged terror-tied groups, operates with foreign funding, and spreads systematic disinformation
New York University’s prestigious Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies is offering graduate-level academic credit for a spring 2026 workshop led by Visualizing Palestine (VP), an organization that Jewish Onliner previously revealed may actually operate as a Lebanese organization aiming to influence American public opinion through disinformation.
From January through May 2026, VP will serve as the Kevorkian Center’s “Practitioner-In-Residence,” offering a course titled “Data Storytelling in Practice” to PhD consortium students across New York City universities. The workshop promises to teach students VP’s “approach to data literacy when researching and visualizing topics such as settler-colonialism, military occupation, and genocide.” Enrollment requires PhD consortium students to take the course for academic credit.
The partnership emerges just one year after Jewish Onliner’s investigative report documented that VP—despite holding American tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status—maintains deep operational and financial ties to Lebanon, Jordan, and broader Middle Eastern actors, raising potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Following the report’s release in February 2025, VP removed its staff directory from its website, an apparent attempt to obscure the organization’s international operational structure.
A “Western-Based” Organization With Middle Eastern Control
According to Jewish Onliner’s comprehensive investigative findings, VP presents itself as a North American nonprofit with offices in Toronto and Santa Barbara, California. However, documentation reveals a substantially different operational reality.
The organization’s parent entity, Visualizing Impact (VI),is registered in Canada as an NGO. In the US, the NGO Empowerment Works serves as VP’s fiscal sponsor, allowing it to receive donations and work within the United States.
VI employs staff in various locations throughout the Middle East, including Beirut, Amman, Ramallah, Cairo, and Dubai. A 2014 job posting under VI’s name listed job requirements including “ease of travel to countries in the Middle East” and “ability to travel to Palestine.” VP’s own strategic planning documents explicitly identify its target audience as “Western publics” while stating its accountability lies with the “Palestinian liberation movement”.
VP co-founders Ramzi Jaber and Joumana Al Jabri possess deep Middle Eastern ties. Jaber, a Palestinian originally from East Jerusalem, has publicly described the organization’s origins in a “famous house in Amman”.
Financial records reveal VP’s parent entity, Visualizing Impact, received over $200,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations between 2015 and 2018—grants that explicitly listed a Beirut address for the organization. Additionally, VP is formally listed as part of the Global Network on the Question of Palestine, a network under the Arab Renaissance for Democracy & Development (ARDD), a Jordanian nonprofit with documented Middle Eastern patronage.
A 2014 Visualizing Impact slide deck detailing the organization’s “narrative strategy and budget” includes information for a bank account in Lebanon. These regional partnerships and funding sources indicate both financial and political connections to Middle Eastern institutions and actors.
Systematic Misinformation and Partnerships with Terror-Tied & Antisemitic Groups
Jewish Onliner’s investigation documented numerous instances where VP’s infographics present demonstrably false or distorted information while maintaining the façade of objective data visualization.
Critical examples include claims that “Palestine” existed as a sovereign state in 1882 when it was part of the British Mandate, assertions that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank must carry Israeli-made identification documents when they actually carry Palestinian Authority-issued IDs and passports, and allegations that “Israel denies cancer care,” despite Israeli hospitals providing thousands of Palestinians with medical services annually, including specialty care, even during the Israel-Hamas war.
VP maintains close operational relationships with organizations that have repeatedly engaged in antisemitic activity or expressed support for terrorism. VP’s founders acknowledged that they view themselves as part of the same “ecosystem” as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group that has called for the "eradication" of the United States and frequently crosses into antisemitic rhetoric.
VP has also actively promoted and created visualizations for the BDS movement, which itself has expressed support for terrorism and antisemitism.
The organization’s source material and partnerships reveal a systematic pattern of collaboration with organizations designated by Israel as terror groups. VP’s infographics rely heavily on entities such as Al Haq and Al Mezan. These organizations have been sanctioned by the U.S. and have alleged ties to Hamas and the PFLP. VP also cites groups with documented bias against Israel, including Amnesty International.
Throughout 2025, VP partnered directly with these same Palestinian organizations to produce visuals. In 2022, VP partnered with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Al Haq to produce an infographic attacking Psagot Wine’s “ties to the illegal Israeli settler enterprise.” That same year, Al Haq, Addameer, and Al Mezan cited VP visuals in their own campaigns.
Historical records retrieved via the Wayback Machine from as recent as February 2023 indicate that VP maintained ties with UNRWA, a UN agency repeatedly linked to Hamas and other terror-related activities. Subsequent investigations, particularly following the October 7 Hamas massacre, have validated claims about UNRWA employees who directly participated in the attacks and maintained direct organizational connections to Hamas.
Direct Political Influence Operations Targeting U.S. Policy
VP's campaigns promote narratives that appear designed to influence American politics and policy. The organization produced graphics in January 2024 accusing President Biden and his administration of “complicity in genocide.” In 2023, VP created materials for the “Not on Our Dime” campaign specifically designed to pressure New York State to revoke tax-exempt status for charitable organizations operating in the West Bank.
In 2013, VP collaborated with the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USPCR) (then called the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation) on a coordinated advertising campaign in Washington, D.C., with posters strategically displayed on Metro trains and billboards positioned to follow AIPAC conference attendees.
In June 2024, VP produced a series of infographics for activist Linda Sarsour’s MPower Change, directly pressuring Citibank to divest from Israeli bonds and companies. A 2019 infographic showed which colleges and universities had divested from Israel using a Venn diagram to compare Israel to the apartheid regime in South Africa.
These campaigns reveal VP’s documented strategy: using visually compelling but factually distorted infographics to mobilize American public opinion, influence U.S. policy decisions, and undermine Israel’s right to exist while promoting the BDS movement.
Legal Questions About Foreign Agent Registration Remain Unresolved
VP’s documented activities and foreign funding sources raise significant questions about whether the organization is obligated to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Under FARA Section 611, any individual or entity acting under the direction or control of a foreign principal and engaging in political or public relations activities within the United States must disclose those affiliations and financial arrangements.
VP’s systematic efforts to influence American public opinion and policy—including the “Not on Our Dime” campaign and targeted advertising aimed at U.S. policymakers—may potentially constitute the type of political activities that could trigger FARA registration requirements. Yet despite evidence of foreign funding sources, foreign-based operational control, and explicit accountability to “the Palestinian liberation movement,” the organization has not registered as required by law.
Jewish Onliner reached out to NYU and the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies for comment but did not receive a response.
Excellent investigative work on the FARA angle here. The disconnect between VP's 501(c)(3) status and the Beirut-based operations is pretty stark. Most universities have vendor vetting processes that should flag foreign funding streams, but academic freedom arguments seem to override due diligence checks. I've sen similar patterns where prestigous institutions lend credibility to organizations that wouldn't pass basic compliance reviews in any other sector.