Exclusive | Activist who sent Ilhan Omars daughter and Hasan Piker on Cuba aid convoy has ties to Hamas and Iran

A millionaire anti-war activist who organized the high-profile “humanitarian aid” convoy to Cuba in March has ties to Hamas and the Iranian regime.The aid flotilla to Cuba attracted much attention as it included Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi and leftist streamer Hasan Piker — who both sung the praises of the ailing Communist ‘paradise’ after their trip.It was organized by Medea Benjamin, president of the Arc of Justice Foundation, a charity with $51 million at its disposal.Benjamin, 73, made at least seven trips to Gaza between 2009 and 2012 where he met with Hamas officials, including the group’s then-leader Ismail Haniyeh, publicly posted photos show.Hamas were designated a terror group by the US in 1997.Both working for activist group CodePink, Benjamin and her friend and fellow activist Tighe Barry, 69, also met Hamas leaders, including foreign affairs minister Ahmed Yusef, who in 2009 handed them a letter to deliver to President Obama, according the group’s website.Yusef, who has been described as “Hamas’s gate to the West,” was a senior advisor to then-Gaza Prime Minister who was later assassinated in Tehran in 2024.Benjamin and Barry promptly delivered the Obama letter to the US Embassy in Cairo on June 4, 2009, during a time when the appointed US administration official was refusing to meet with Hamas.“CodePink is open about being a conduit between Hamas and Obama, even met with Obama administration official Buffy Wicks at the White House after the letter was delivered,” said a report by Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a New Jersey-based think tank that studies extremism.“That’s a remarkable acknowledgment of the intermediary role.” Knowingly providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization is a violation of federal law, legal experts point out.Benjamin was a co-founder of CodePink, the group started by China-based software entrepreneur and activist Neville Singham’s wife Jodie Ev...