Jerusalem, 15 July, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Israel’s Registry of Nonprofits on Tuesday issued a formal recommendation to dissolve the Aid 48 association, the social arm of the Israeli-Arab Ra’am party, citing grave financial and operational links to terrorist organizations, including Hamas.
The decision followed a series of investigations initiated by the Forum for Choosing Life, a group representing bereaved families and victims of terrorism, which accused the organization of acting as a financial conduit for terrorist activity.
The report, signed by Attorney Yosef Margolin, Director of the Welfare, Culture and Sports Division in the Registrar’s office, concluded that Aid 48 engaged in “continuous illegality” and violated rules of proper nonprofit administration. “In this case, there is continuous illegality and activity contrary to the rules of proper administration, in addition to illegality arising from links to terrorist organizations,” Margolin wrote. “All of these constitute grounds for dissolution.”
According to the registrar’s findings, Aid 48 not only failed to maintain basic financial oversight but knowingly transferred funds to entities officially designated as terrorist organizations. “It is sufficient to discover one case in which an association transferred funds to a terrorist organization, knowing that it was a terrorist organization, in order to determine that its activities are contrary to the law,” the report states.
The Forum for Choosing Life, in partnership with the Ad Kan organization and journalist Ayala Hasson, initially uncovered the alleged misconduct. Subsequent media reports further linked Aid 48 to additional organizations with terror affiliations. The forum hailed the registrar’s findings as a turning point in confronting terrorist financing under the guise of civil society work.
“This is a historic victory for the forum that cut off Hamas’s funding pipeline from the Islamic Movement of Ra’am and the Aid 48 Association,” the Forum said in a statement, noting that Aid 48 managed over 250 million shekels in recent years. “Transferring funds to terrorist organizations, ‘knowing that it is a terrorist organization,’ requires a decisive criminal response.”
The organization called for criminal charges against senior Ra’am officials and others connected to Aid 48, insisting that “anyone who supported Hamas until October 7 should be sent to prison.”
Attorneys Eran Ben Ari and Assaf Tekhel, who submitted the formal complaint on behalf of the forum, welcomed the decision. “The detailed, reasoned, and justified decision of the Registrar of Nonprofits to dissolve Aid 48, while accepting all our claims, is a significant milestone in the fight against terrorism and in promoting proper management of nonprofits in Israel,” they said. “The nonprofit’s actions assisted terrorist elements while illegally promoting the financial interests of the nonprofit’s members.”
The report also highlighted issues such as the lack of internal oversight, use of funds for unauthorized purposes, and financial dealings with companies owned by board members—violations which, taken alone, could justify dissolution under Israeli law. However, the added layer of terrorist ties elevated the registrar’s response to what he described as the “highest level of severity.”
A political footnote to the case emerged from the revelation that coalition negotiations between Ra’am, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, and Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party in 2021 took place at Aid 48’s offices, raising questions about the group’s political entanglements.
While the report stops short of ordering immediate dissolution, it serves as a formal warning and outlines the legal grounds to initiate proceedings under Section 50 of the Associations Law. The case is now expected to move forward toward a final decision, and potentially, criminal investigations.
Ra’am, an Arab acronym for the United Arab List, traces its roots back to the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamic movement designated as a terror group in several countries. Hamas is the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch while the Islamic Movement was founded as the Israeli branch. The Islamic Movement split in 1996 over the issue of participating in Israeli elections.
The Southern Branch, regarded as more pragmatic, is active in Israeli politics. Its party, Ra’am, has five seats in the Israeli Knesset and is currently led by MK Mansour Abbas. Its support of the formation of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s government in 2021 was the first time an Israeli-Arab party ever formally backed a governing coalition.
The Northern Branch, led by Sheikh Raed Salah, was outlawed in Israel in 2015 over its close ties with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
