A prominent anti-Israel group, Jewish Voice for Peace, is facing a nearly $700,000 penalty — the latest blow to the non-profit’s credibility. 

Jewish Voice for Peace, which has built up a major activist presence from college campuses to city streets, will have to fork over the six-figure penalty after it illegally applied for, and received, a $340,000 forgivable loan in 2020, according to the Justice Department. The loan, which was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, was off limits to groups engaged in political or lobbying activities — like JVP. 

The group’s history on college campuses has led some university leaders to suspend or ban JVP from their schools. 

After a pro-Israel advocacy group raised alarm over the potential fraud, the Justice Department launched an investigation and found that JVP had falsely certified on its loan application that it was a non-political and non-lobbying group. As part of the settlement, the group agreed to pay back double the amount that it was loaned. 

“The Paycheck Protection Act Program existed to help businesses survive a devastating global pandemic,” United States attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, said this week. “When business owners unfairly drain those funds — either by not reading the eligibility requirements or disregarding them — they put the entire program at risk. In the end, those who are harmed are the businesses that actually qualified for and needed the money, and the taxpayers who funded the program.” 

In response, JVP said it “contends that any misstatements in this application were inadvertent.” 

The incident marks yet another blow to JVP as it faces mounting scrutiny. 

Earlier this month, a pro-Israel advocacy group, StandWithUs, issued a 34-page report alleging JVP’s connections to terror groups, such as the Palestinian prisoner advocacy group, Samidoun. JVP has also advocated on behalf of Palestinian terrorists, including the secretary general for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Sa’adat, and a PFLP member, Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted of partaking in a 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two young Israelis. 

In September, the chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, Jason Smith, called on the IRS to revoke JVP’s status as a tax-exempt organization, arguing that the group ​​”has a history of sharing antisemitic tropes, expressing support for violence and terrorism, and vilifying Zionism and Zionists.” 

A major criticism of the group stems from its advertisement as offering a “Jewish” perspective, despite the fact that American Jews overwhelmingly identify as supporters of Israel. Established Jewish advocacy groups have accused JVP of falsely parading as a Jewish group to further legitimize its cause and to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of antisemitism. Speculation that the group was not even led by Jewish activists grew back in 2019 when a Jewish watchdog group, StopAntisemitism, discovered that the group’s Facebook page was managed by an administrator working out of Lebanon. 

“It looks like Jewish Voices for Peace are frauds on multiple levels,” Jewish student activist, Eyan Yakoby, mused on X.