Key Takeaways:
- Palestine Action was sanctioned as a terrorist organization, and the founder of its American branch faces extradition to the U.S. for allegedly funding Hamas.
- The founders of Palestine Action U.S. are also the founders of Babochki Collective, which has been financially supporting several news outlets.
- Mondoweiss, Sovereign Media, and Vox Ummah have all received funding through the network tied to Palestine Action U.S.
A terrorist organization is influencing American and global audiences through its funding of independent media outlets.
Palestine Action, a UK-based terrorist group, has recently been designated by the U.S. Treasury. However the powers behind the American branch, Palestine Action U.S., continues to spread its radical ideology through the news organizations that it supports. Without understanding the reach of these dangerous revolutionaries, lawmakers cannot hope to fully address the scope of Palestine Action’s threat.
Palestine Action
Palestine Action is a political vandalism and protest group founded in the United Kingdom in 2020. The organization’s “actionists” target defense industry factories, companies, and academic institutions with ostensible ties to Israel, smashing windows, painting facades, and damaging equipment.
Following a June 2025 incident at RAF base Brize Norton in which activists damaged military equipment, Palestine Action was proscribed by the UK Home Office (interior ministry). The United States followed suit on August 26, with Palestine Action being designated and sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Fergie Chambers and Palestine Action U.S.
James Cox “Fergie” Chambers Jr., a multi-millionaire heir turned communist activist, co-founded the U.S. branch of Palestine Action in October 2023. Chambers described the group as a network, with no leadership, bank account, or assets. Concurrent with the designation of Palestine Action by OFAC, Chambers is facing extradition from Spain to the U.S. over alleged Hamas financing. The indictment is still sealed, but Chambers was reportedly arrested in Ibiza in July and continues to be held by authorities. In December 2025, Chambers stated that he supports Hamas.
In August 2024, Palestine Action U.S. announced that it was “transitioning” into an “anti-imperialist propaganda front” and “militant front against the U.S.-NATO-Zionist Axis of Imperialism” called Unity of Fields. Almost two months later, Unity of Fields denied that it was Palestine Action. Chambers said in June 2025 that he was not connected to Unity of Fields, which developed after his involvement. Fellow Palestine Action U.S. co-founder Calla Walsh announced in July 2025 that she was no longer a member of the organization due to differences over the movement’s direction.
While a rift appeared to appear with Unity of Fields, as recently as June Chambers still identified with Palestine Action. He proclaimed in July that if Palestine Action was indeed a terrorist organization, then “terrorism is awesome.” Walsh also has continued to identify with and support Palestine Action. Chambers’ other operations, to which DSA members are officers, continued to keep Palestine Action members at its core.
The Extended Palestine Action U.S. Network
In July 2023, ahead of the creation of the U.S. branch of Palestine Action, Chambers and a few of his “closer comrades” created the Babochki Collective, “a cadre collective focused on revolutionary funding, propaganda and political education, direct action/legal support, and the open proliferation of a steadily stronger anti-imperialist united front.”
Among the Babochki founders were Walsh and Paige Belanger, both of whom participated in a November 2023 Palestine Action vandalism attack on a New Hampshire Elbit Systems facility. Belanger has also been involved in another Chambers-backed project, Berkshire Communists. The group participated in events alongside Palestine Action U.S., including an October 2023 Northampton protest. Another individual identified with Babochki is Shabbir Rizvi, who was listed as associated with the organization as part of a March 2025 conference.
Chambers and Babochki have financially backed and founded several news outlets and organizations, expanding their violent radicalism across the information landscape.
Mondoweiss
Anti-Zionist news outlet Mondoweiss received two grants from Babochki in the first three months of the Collective’s operation, and $20,000 in October 2023. Chambers noted in the same X post detailing the grants that he had supported the outlet “for over a decade.” Mondoweiss has published articles written by related organizations and authors; Palestine Action U.S. published two manifestos through Mondoweiss. The May 2024 call to action written by Mondoweiss urged to “escalate” by breaking “open the university gates,” and performing actions such as “sabotage.”
“We in the U.S. are not exempt from resistance. It is insincere to glorify the Palestinian resistance if, at the same time, we do not raise our own resistance here,” read a Palestine Action U.S. manifesto published on Mondoweiss’ website. “We are not naïve enough to think the revolution will come through ‘peaceful’ means or spontaneous uprisings without organized militancy.”
Statements were also published on behalf of Unity of Fields in Mondoweiss, including a September 2024 statement in which they glorified their actions as “counterinsurgency” against the United States, and an October 2024 statement backing the Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoner Solidarity Network after it had been sanctioned by Canada and the U.S. as a terrorist entity. Walsh also had published articles in Mondoweiss.
Sovereign Media Coalition
Sovereign Media is a “Nairobi-based socialist and anti-imperialist news outlet,” according to its website. It has also described itself as a coalition of “anti-imperialist” outlets. Sovereign Media has published articles proclaiming that “Israel is not Africa’s friend,” and that the Jewish state was using Somaliland as a “pawn” in its war against Palestinians.
While it is presented as an independent outlet, according to the Washington Outsider Center for Information Warfare, the organization is closely linked to authoritarian state media apparatuses. Sovereign Media, as a collective, partners with Venezuelanalysis, Qiao Collective, Black Agenda Report, Kawsachun News, Orinoco Tribune, and Naam. Babochki’s Rizvi is a contributor to Orinoco Tribune.
Sovereign Media is funded by Babochki Collective, the outlet itself has admitted, but has also insisted that its content is not influenced by Chambers or his operations. Yet the outlet’s ties to the extended Palestine Action U.S. network extend beyond financial backing. Rizvi is a contributor to Sovereign Media. Sovereign Media is also part of a media coalition with another Babochki-backed project, Vox Ummah.
Vox Ummah
Vox Ummah is an Islamic “anti-imperialist” founded in May 2025 with support from Chambers, who stated on X that he “played a small part in creating this exciting project.”
Rizvi has been described by the outlet as an editor or the political director of Vox Ummah, and has the handle links for Vox Ummah and Sovereign Media on his Instagram account. Rizvi also serves as the central connection to the outlet and Iranian regime media networks.
The Vox Ummah political director is a contributor to the pro-Hezbollah Al Mayadeen and to the Iranian state media outlet Press TV, with work from the latter republished on Vox Ummah. A Network Contagion Research Institute report contended that the frequent republication of Press TV articles by Vox Ummah indicated that the ostensibly independent outlet served as an intermediary for the Iranian media ecosystem.
Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC)
Atlanta Community Press Collective (ACPC) is an “abolitionist, not-for-profit media collective” that has received significant financial backing from Babochki. Two days after the October 7 Massacre, Babochki awarded a $350,000 grant to ACPC. The grant is comparable to the sum total of all donations and grants received by ACPC in its 2025 fiscal year.
Radical Media Networks
The Palestine Action U.S.-linked media network shows how radical groups attempt to influence populations beyond just physical acts, but also through the advancement of propaganda outlets and mouthpieces. The close ties of Iranian state media with the Babochki-backed news coalition also show how these propaganda efforts are being enhanced by state actors. The extended Palestine Action U.S. network should be scrutinized not only after its terrorism designation, but also for suspected ties to Iran.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
