KinderUSA, a U.S. charity that provides humanitarian aid to children in war zones, including Palestine, filed suit April 26 against the author and publishers of a book that ties the group to terrorist organizations. The libel suit, which seeks $500,000 in damages and other relief, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court after the publishers refused a request to discontinue distribution. Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad was written by Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former Treasury Department official, and published by Yale University Press in April 2006. In its complaint, KinderUSA (Kinder) states:

9. "KINDER-USA is discussed in Chapter 6, Foreign Funding of Hamas on pages 151 and 152 and in the related footnotes numbered 21 and 22. The text states: 'Even after the closure of the Holy Land Foundation in 2001, other U.S.-based charities continue to fund Hamas. One organization that has appeared to rise out of the ashes of the HLFRD is KinderUSA.'" 10. The Defendants further falsely state that 'the formation of KinderUSA highlights an increasingly common trend: banned charities continuing to operate by incorporating under new names in response to designation as terrorist entities or in an effort to evade attention. This trend is also seen with groups raising money for al-Quaeda.' The footnote to this paragraph mentions two officers of KINDER-USA at the onset and continues with an extensive discussion of al-Quaeda funding networks, without informing the reader that there is no allegation that KinderUSA is tied to al-Quaeda."

The book's basis for tying Kinder to terrorism rests on the fact that the executive director was employed by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) before it was shut down by the Treasury Department in 2001 due to alleged ties to Hamas. In addition, a Kinder founder had also served on the HLF board. Currently, seven former HLF leaders are awaiting trial on criminal charges of diverting funds to Hamas. However, the factual basis of Treasury's designation of HLF as a supporter of terrorism and the criminal charges for providing support to Hamas have come under fire as faulty translations and fabricated evidence issues have been revealed in the press. Kinder issued a press release denying the book's claims, saying Yale University Press failed to conduct a fact-check on these allegations. Attorney Jack Kilroy said, "The book falls far short of Yale University's reputation for excellent academic scholarship." However, on May 9, a Yale spokesperson told the New Haven Independent that "of course, the book was vetted. We took it through peer review, as with all our books." Levitt did not respond to the Independent's requests for comment. Prior to filing the suit, the complaint states that Kinder's attorney contacted Yale University Press and Washington Institute for Near East Policy and requested a public retraction and discontinued distribution of the book. Yale declined the request, and Kinder's complaint says book's allegations "subject the organization to unfair scrutiny or suspicion, damage its ability to raise funds and to recruit and retain volunteers for its charitable mission, and caused irreparable harm to its reputation." In the Kinder press release, board chair Laila Al-Marayati, M.D. said, "We are a transparent and accountable public charity that works diligently to comply with all applicable state and federal regulations." On its website, Kinder's statement on financial accountability says the impact of the book is to "take food out of the mouths of hungry children in Palestine that so urgently need our help. We are a transparent and accountable public charity that works diligently to comply with all applicable state and federal regulations, we use the best practices to insure that the money we raise helps the innocent victims of conflict and natural disaster in Palestine and elsewhere." Earlier this year, Kinder requested an investigation into illegal government surveillance, but the Justice Department did not grant the group's request.