Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have pulled $55,700 in funding pledged to a Muslim charity over its leader’s anti-Israel statements, according to sources.
The pair had offered support to Milwaukee-based Muslim Women’s Coalition (MWC) through their Archewell charity but its founder, Janan Najeeb, said they have since withdrawn over articles she authored in two local publications.
In a Feb. 2024 opinion piece for the Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Najeeb wrote: “Israel’s 75-year occupation of Palestine and the genocide in Gaza are a grave injustice.
“We demand a permanent ceasefire, an end to arming the apartheid state of Israel and the liberation of Palestine. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, from the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever.”
Last year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also reported that Najeeb’s brother, Ihsan Atta, was behind a mural featuring a Nazi swastika embedded in a Star of David with the words “The irony of becoming what you once hated,” in all capital letters.
Jewish community leaders were quick to condemn the mural as “vile” and “horribly antisemitic,” according to the newspaper.
IRS records show in 2023 Archewell gave $27,960 to Milwaukee Women’s Muslim Coalition. Archewell’s 2024 records are not yet available.
WMC works to “empower Muslim women and girls through education and outreach,” according to a statement.
Archewell’s cash was earmarked for the Afghan Women’s Sewing Group and Support Circle, which benefits refugees from Afghanistan who have relocated to Milwaukee.
The pulling of the funding drew immediate criticism from The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest US Muslim group, but also a controversial one, as it has previously been accused of links to terror group Hamas, as The Post has previously reported.
CAIR published a letter to Archewell, also written by Najeeb, which accuses Harry and Meghan of “silencing women of color who speak out against injustice” and undermining their own charitable mission.
“There is painful irony in your decision to withdraw support from Afghan women, many of them war survivors, because the leader of a women’s organization dared to speak out against the creation of more war survivors,” Najeeb wrote.
Archewell did not immediately return a request for comment from The Post.
Founded in 2020, the foundation’s mission is “to do good” and “uplift communities” around the world.
