Visualizing Palestine: A Lebanese Organization Unlawfully Influencing American Youth?
Jewish Onliner investigation uncovers hidden ties between VP and Lebanon, underscoring the need for greater governmental oversight of foreign-linked nonprofits
A new investigation by Jewish Onliner—available at this link—has found that Visualizing Palestine (VP), an organization known for producing striking visual content critical of Israel, may not be the American nonprofit it purports to be. Rather, despite holding tax-deductible 501(c)(3) status under the fiscal sponsorship of Empowerment Works, evidence suggests that VP may actually operate as a Lebanese organization aiming to influence American public opinion through disinformation.
This revelation calls into question VP's transparency, agenda, and its broader influence in the United States, which is particularly pertinent given VP’s explicit efforts to infiltrate the American education system and its stated goal of influencing Western publics. The findings also highlight the potential need for the organization to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Ties to Lebanon & Terror-Linked Entities
While VP operates under the guise of a North American nonprofit, the investigation uncovered that its parent organization, Visualizing Impact (VI), is based in Beirut, with additional offices in Amman and Ramallah, with VP serving as its North American branch. Documents and public statements offer extensive proof of their presence in Lebanon:
VI’s job listings describe its team as “based in Beirut with additional bases in Amman, Toronto, and Dubai.”
During a 2020 panel in Dubai, a VP cofounder shared images of their Beirut office, where they said their early projects were developed.
VP has received financial support from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), a Beirut-based NGO, along with other grant-making organizations in the Middle East.
Tax filings for donations made by the Soros family’s Open Society Foundations to VP—totaling over $200,000 between 2015 and 2018—list a Beirut address for the organization.
A 2014 slide deck from VI included a Lebanese bank account as part of its financial operations.
The organization’s connections extend to groups with alleged links to terrorism. VP has collaborated with Al Haq, a group designated as a terror organization by Israel, and previously collaborated with Samidoun on anti-Israel events, which the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) recently designated a terror organization in October 2024.
Ryan Mauro, an investigative researcher for Capital Research Center and Newsmax TV Contributor, told Jewish Onliner that these findings reveal VP to be a “hostile foreign disinformation operation, likely in violation of Foreign Agent Registration Act regulations.” He further emphasized, “Let's be clear about what this is: A hostile, deliberately deceptive, foreign influence operation targeting Americans to benefit anti-American terrorist groups is a non-violent attack on the U.S.”
Closer to home, VP maintains a strong working relationship with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a U.S.-based group known for supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Recent reports have also linked JVP to Lebanon, suggesting that there may be a network of Lebanese-tied groups working in collaboration to amplify anti-Israel narratives in the U.S.
"If you look at Visualizing Impact/Visualizing Palestine's list of partners, you'll find over 20 pro-terrorism and terrorism-linked organizations. The group is a nexus for propaganda creation for the entangled web of anti-Semitic and anti-American seditionist organizations," Mauro said.
Interestingly, VP appears to prefer avoiding the spotlight, instead serving as a resource for other anti-Israel groups. For example, a full-page New York Times ad from October 2023, consisting entirely of a VP graphic, does not reference the organization at all.
Mauro concurred, telling Jewish Onliner that “What's particularly striking about Visualizing Palestine is how little-known it is among the public, even Americans concerned about this issue, yet it has a massive online presence. This reflects how these extremists have created echo chambers where they can radicalize audiences and, as long as they stay away from public appearances, they can often escape under the radar.”
Perhaps most alarming is that VP’s activities are seemingly aimed at shaping American public opinion, particularly within the education system. In a 2013 talk, one of its cofounders spoke about using VP’s materials in classrooms.
The danger of such indoctrination is amplified due to the narratives VP seeks to promote. By the organization’s own admission, one of VP’s core narratives is that “Palestinian resistance”—a thinly veiled euphemism for violence—is a response to Israel’s so-called “colonial oppression.”
VP’s “resistance” narrative was evident on October 10, 2023, when the group posted on Instagram to its 200,000 followers that the Hamas-led massacre three days earlier represented a “resurgence in Palestinian armed resistance.” The post also indicated that anti-Israel activists could rely on VP’s resources to help “contextualize” the attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis and the taking of 250 hostages.
The Zinn Education Project, an organization that works to insert anti-Israel and other radical material into public schools, recommends using VP, writing that it “can help students ‘see’ Palestinian reality in new ways, but also prompt students’ own imaginative visual projects to story Palestine.”
More recently, VP published a book titled Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation (2024), which explicitly states that VP’s work has been used by educators to “supplement curriculums at universities and high schools.”
The Need for Oversight and Accountability
VP’s extensive foreign ties prompt questions about whether the organization should be registered under the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires entities acting on behalf of foreign principals to disclose their activities. Despite operating under a North American legal structure, VP’s financial backing from Middle Eastern sources, base in the Middle East, and its stated goal of influencing Western discourse suggest it may fall under FARA’s jurisdiction.
In a statement to Jewish Onliner, Mauro expressed support for potential investigations into VP from multiple agencies:
“I am calling on the Department of Education to investigate Visualizing Palestine's activities in our high schools, colleges and universities; calling on the FBI to investigate the group for FARA and counter-terrorism violations and the Treasury Department and IRS to investigate them for possible violations of their tax-exempt statuses and international financial transactions.”
—Ryan Mauro
With the newly inaugurated second Trump administration prioritizing the issue of foreign influence, VP’s activities highlight the broader challenge of apparent foreign entities leveraging American nonprofit status to shape policy and public opinion. Recent evidence of foreign interference in the K-12 education from the governments of China and Qatar has only amplified these concerns, underscoring the need for greater oversight.
VP’s case serves as a cautionary tale about the risks posed by foreign-linked organizations cloaking themselves as domestic nonprofits. Ensuring transparency and compliance with laws like FARA is crucial to protecting the integrity of U.S. discourse and policymaking.
Read the full Jewish Onliner investigation at this link.