I have spent the last twenty-three years using courtrooms as a weapon against terror. My organization, Shurat HaDin — Israel Law Center, has recovered more than $200 million from terrorists and their financiers and secured over $2 billion in judgments against Iran, Syria, North Korea, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, and the banks that cleared their money. I know what a foreign-directed legal operation looks like from the inside. The Hind Rajab Foundation is one.
This week, Shurat HaDin filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice. We are asking Washington to open a national security investigation into the Hind Rajab Foundation — its officers, its funders, its affiliates — and to consider sanctions, FARA enforcement, immigration measures, and coordinated action across the FBI, State, Treasury, and OFAC.
This is not a symbolic filing. It is an operational request. And it is overdue.
What the Hind Rajab Foundation Actually Is
The Hind Rajab Foundation — HRF — presents itself as a grassroots human-rights group. It is not. It is a globe-spanning legal operation running multilingual filings across multiple jurisdictions, with investigative capacity, media reach, international travel budgets, data-collection infrastructure, and coordinated criminal complaints against Israeli soldiers, reservists, veterans, and — increasingly — Israeli-American dual nationals. That does not run on donations from a shoebox. That runs on money. Someone is writing the checks.
Our complaint asks the Justice Department to find out who. Whether HRF is coordinated with Hezbollah, Iran, the IRGC, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or the Houthis. Whether U.S. banks, payment platforms, law firms, and nonprofit intermediaries are moving the money. Whether HRF's chairman's publicly reported ties to Hezbollah trigger the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Whether the doxing of IDF soldiers on American soil crosses into cyberstalking, threats, conspiracy, and material support for terrorism.
I have litigated every one of these questions before. Against the Arab Bank. Against the Bank of China. Against the PLO. Against the Islamic Republic of Iran directly. I know what the paper trail looks like. I know what U.S. law can reach. HRF fits the pattern.
Why This Reaches Americans
Here is the part most Washington observers have missed.
HRF has already publicly pursued Israeli-American citizens. Dual nationals living in the United States. Reservists visiting family in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles. The dossiers are being assembled here. The arrests are being sought abroad. American passports are being weaponized against Americans by a foreign-funded operation with alleged ties to designated terrorist organizations.
Today's target is an Israeli soldier. Tomorrow's target is a U.S. Marine who fought ISIS in Mosul. A Navy SEAL who took out a Houthi drone site in Yemen. A Green Beret who trained the Peshmerga. If a foreign-directed organization can build criminal cases against dual nationals in Berlin, Brussels, and Buenos Aires, no American servicemember is safe from the same playbook.
This Is Not Censorship
HRF and its defenders will call this censorship. It is not. Nobody at Shurat HaDin is asking to shut down human-rights advocacy. Nobody is asking to prosecute criticism of Israel. The question is narrower and harder: is this organization a front? Is the money coming from designated terrorist entities? Are the operations directed by hostile foreign principals?
Those are questions the Justice Department answers every day about every other suspected foreign influence operation on U.S. soil. HRF should get the same treatment. No more, no less.
The Tools Already Exist
The Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Anti-Terrorism Act. The material-support statutes — 18 U.S.C. §§ 2339A and 2339B. OFAC designations under Executive Order 13224. Immigration measures. Sanctions.
The Justice Department has used every one of these against Iranian influence networks, Hezbollah financiers, and IRGC front groups from Michigan to Manhattan. Shurat HaDin has helped build many of those cases. There is no reason HRF should be the exception.
The Battlefield Has Moved
Iran and its proxies have learned that rockets get shot down and drones get intercepted — but a courtroom can hold a soldier in a foreign jail for months on a manufactured complaint. Lawfare is cheaper than munitions and harder to trace. That is why HRF exists. That is why the network is expanding. That is why the targets are shifting from Israelis abroad to Israeli-Americans at home.
The legal record is not self-retrieving. Neither is the record of who funds what. Both have to be built, filed, and pressed by people willing to do the work. That is what Shurat HaDin does. It is what we have done for twenty-three years. It is what we are doing now.
What the DOJ Must Do Now
The Department of Justice has the authority. It has the statutes. It has the interagency machinery. What it needs now is the political will to look at HRF the way it would look at any other suspected foreign influence operation with alleged ties to a designated terrorist organization.
Investigate. Follow the money. Apply the law. Protect American citizens — including the ones who also carry an Israeli passport.
The courtroom is the new front. America cannot cede it. And Shurat HaDin will not.
About the Author
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is the founder and president of Shurat HaDin — Israel Law Center. Since founding Shurat HaDin in 2003, she has recovered more than $200 million from terrorists in court and secured over $2 billion in judgments against Iran, Syria, North Korea, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, and the banks that cleared their money. Shurat HaDin operates with a network of more than 600 volunteer attorneys across Israel, the United States, Canada, and Europe. Darshan-Leitner is the co-author of Harpoon: Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism's Money Masters, the account of the Israeli intelligence unit that pioneered the financial war against Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Nitsana Darshan-Leitner?
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is the founder and president of Shurat HaDin — Israel Law Center. She has recovered more than $200 million from terrorists in court and secured over $2 billion in judgments against Iran, Syria, North Korea, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, and the banks that cleared their money.
What is Shurat HaDin?
Shurat HaDin — Israel Law Center is the Tel Aviv-based legal organization Nitsana Darshan-Leitner founded in 2003 to turn civil litigation into an economic weapon against terror. The model was borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center's playbook against the Ku Klux Klan. Shurat HaDin operates with a network of more than 600 volunteer attorneys across Israel, the United States, Canada, and Europe.
What is the Hind Rajab Foundation?
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) is a Brussels-based organization that files criminal complaints against Israeli soldiers, reservists, veterans, and dual nationals in jurisdictions around the world. Shurat HaDin has asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate its funding, its foreign-principal ties, and its operations on U.S. soil.
What has Shurat HaDin asked the DOJ to do?
Open a national security investigation into HRF and consider sanctions, FARA enforcement, immigration measures, and coordinated action across the FBI, State Department, Treasury, and OFAC.
What statutes could apply?
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the Anti-Terrorism Act, the material-support statutes (18 U.S.C. §§ 2339A and 2339B), and OFAC sanctions authority under Executive Order 13224.
Why does this affect American citizens?
HRF has publicly pursued Israeli-American dual nationals, including reservists living in the United States. American passports are being used against Americans by a foreign-funded operation with alleged ties to designated terrorist organizations.
Is this an attempt to silence human-rights advocacy?
No. The complaint is narrow: it asks whether HRF is a front for hostile foreign principals, whether its funding traces to designated terrorist entities, and whether its U.S. operations violate existing federal law.
Written by
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has recovered more than $200 million from terrorists in court — and secured over $2 billion in judgments against Iran, Syria, North Korea, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, and the banks that cleared their money.
She is the founder and president of Shurat HaDin — Israel Law Center, the Tel Aviv-based legal organization she founded in 2003 to turn civil litigation into an economic weapon against terror. The model was borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center's playbook against the Ku Klux Klan. Today Shurat HaDin operates with a network of more than 600 volunteer attorneys in Israel, the United States, Canada, and Europe.
