Most of the organizations providing the backbone of anti-Israel campus protests are supporters of the terrorist organization Hamas and some receive funding, at least indirectly, from left-wing billionaires.
A forthcoming analysis by the Capital Research Center, which analyzes non-profits, found the vast majority of groups behind the recent spate of college campus protests are operating as fronts for Hamas, which is committed to destroying Israel and killing Jews.
“I was shocked when I started putting together the data,” Capital Research Center investigator Ryan Mauro told The Washington Times. “They didn’t put any effort into trying to hide the fact that this is a Hamas-driven thing.”
Mr. Mauro is examining more than 100 organizations involved in the campus protests. Most of them, he said, harbor pro-Hamas messaging and ties that belie claims that the protests are centered on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been at war with Israel since Oct. 7 when thousands of Hamas terrorists raided Israel and killed roughly 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. About 130 hostages remain unaccounted for.
The Capital Research Center data also show some groups backing the campus protests are linked to left-wing funding, among them the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which in 2018 received $300,000 from the Open Society Foundation, a philanthropy founded by left-wing billionaire George Soros.
The money was provided to USCPR for “promoting freedom and a world without racism and oppression.” The Open Society Foundation provided an additional grant to the group of $150,000 in 2021 and $250,000 in 2022.
The left-leaning Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave the group $410,000 between 2017 and 2021.
Faculty and students at Columbia and other campuses say the protests are seeking an end to Israel’s war against Hamas that resulted in thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza. Protesters insist the demonstrations are not anti-Jewish.
But the organizations playing a prominent role in them are sending a powerful anti-Israel, anti-Jewish message.
The group Columbia University Apartheid Divest has held news conferences and provided leadership at the New York City school’s pro-Palestinian protests that shut down the campus for days before the police moved in on Tuesday night.
The group defines itself on social media as a coalition of more than 100 student organizations “fighting for a liberated Palestine and the end of Columbia’s complicity in genocide.”
Mr. Mauro said the group has held joint events with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization based in Gaza and the West Bank that seeks to destroy Israel and remove Western capitalism from the Middle East.
The terrorist group also surfaced at protests on the Duke University campus last week. The organization’s flag was flown briefly on the Durham, North Carolina school’s campus during a pro-Palestinian demonstration, the Duke University school newspaper reported. It was taken down at the request of school administrators.
At UCLA, the group Neturei Karta has shown up at pro-Palestinian protests that have ignited on campus.
The group, an Orthodox Jewish Haredi sect, is staunchly anti-Zionist and opposed to the existence of Israel on religious grounds.
In 2023, several members of Neturei Karta met with Palestinians from local terrorist groups at a refugee camp in the West Bank, the Times of Israel reported.
One of the most prominent organizers, Students for Justice in Palestine, which has led many of the college campus protests, including those at Columbia, UCLA and George Washington University “openly praised Hamas terrorists and the death of innocent Israeli citizens,” the American Jewish Committee reported. The group is also accused of harassing Jewish and pro-Israel students on college campuses.
The group Students for Justice in Palestine is at least indirectly receiving funding from Mr. Soros. His Open Society Foundation has funded the Tides Foundation to the tune of millions of dollars over the years. The Tides Foundation provides funding for Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation, or WESPAC, which, according to Mr. Mauro, is “the fiscal sponsor” of Students for Justice in Palestine and administers tax-deductible donations on their behalf.
Representatives from SJP said they do not receive direct funding from WESPAC.
Mr. Mauro said those denying anti-semitic roots in the protests are ignoring key organizers who are showing up again and again at college campuses as the protests spread and anti-Jewish messaging has increased.
Hamas-supporting groups are kickstarting the protests, he said, even though students are getting in front of the cameras and denying their cause is to promote Hamas.
On Wednesday, police took down tents and broke up a protest encampment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which the school newspaper said was organized by Students for Justice in Palestine and the Young Democratic Socialists of America, an organization that is increasingly viewed as antisemitic.
“Yes, the students organize it independently, to some degree,” Mr. Mauro said. “But where do they find other support? It starts with these groups, and then the students will have their own spin.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.