Israel's Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli revealed on Wednesday that his ministry requested a formal review of Israeli cooperation with aid organizations it says are connected to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The letter to Defense Ministry Director-General Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram follows U.S. President Donald Trump's Nov. 24 executive order launching a process to designate certain Muslim Brotherhood branches as foreign terrorist organizations.

In the letter, Chikli cited what he described as evidence of ties between CAIR and Hamas, including participation in conferences funded by groups convicted of supporting the terrorist organization and collaboration with Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated entities.

The ministry also pointed to statements by CAIR officials that it characterized as support for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and as antisemitic rhetoric.

CAIR rejected the allegations in a social media response, calling them an "old Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy theory." The organization pointed to its longstanding public condemnation of terrorism, including a statement on its website denouncing "all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qaida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas or any other group" designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department.

CAIR also released documentation of what it said were 30 years of condemning terrorism, including Hamas suicide bombings, and reiterated its 2023 board statement condemning attacks on civilians on Oct. 7.

The organization has faced scrutiny over alleged connections to Hamas, which it has repeatedly denied.

Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, designated the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terror organizations and transnational criminal organizations.

Under the new designation, the two groups and their affiliates are subject to "heightened enforcement" and are barred from buying or acquiring land in the state, according to Abbott's office.

"The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose sharia law and establish Islam's 'mastership of the world,'" the governor stated.

"These radical extremists are not welcome in our state," he added.

Following the atrocities committed during the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel's northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023, CAIR and other members of the United States Council of Muslim Organizations, which bills itself as the "largest American Muslim civil-society umbrella organization," released a statement blaming Israel for Hamas' barbaric attacks.

"The recent unprovoked and continuous attacks by Israel on Palestinian towns, cities and refugee camps have resulted in tragic loss of Palestinian lives," the umbrella group stated, with no mention of Israelis murdered, raped, wounded, and taken hostage.

"CAIR was created as a Hamas front group and still functions as a propaganda arm of Hamas to this day," Steve Emerson, founder and executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, told JNS in 2023. "Antisemitism is in the DNA of CAIR. It is part of CAIR's intrinsic fiber," he added.

His organization released a report titled "CAIR's Antisemitism Unmasked" on June 16.

This JNS.org report was republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate.