Some of President Joe Biden’s most prominent backers are funding pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas demonstrators who are protesting U.S. support for Israel.
Activist groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow are in part funded through nonprofit networks involving leftist megadonors such as George Soros, Bill and Melinda Gates, David Rockefeller Jr., and the Pritzker family, according to POLITICO.
Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, responsible for organizing protests at universities such as Columbia, are both supported by the Tides Foundation, which is funded by Soros and Gates. Tides also receives money from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, directed by a board that includes David Rockefeller Jr. Nick Pritzker, a wealthy entrepreneur and heir to the Hyatt Hotel empire, and his wife Susan are also donors to Tides.
Tides has given more than half a million dollars to Jewish Voice for Peace over the past five years, according to POLITICO. The foundation claims Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow as “grantee partners.”
The Pritzkers also founded the Libra Foundation, which has financially supported groups such as The Climate Justice Alliance, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, and the Immigrant Defense Project, all of which have expressed opposition to Israel’s actions following Hamas’ October 7 terror attack. The Climate Justice Alliance has organized marches calling Biden “Genocide Joe” over U.S. support for Israel.
Protests have roiled university campuses in recent weeks, resulting in hundreds of arrests after demonstrators took over campus buildings and blocked students from attending classes. Of the roughly 300 people arrested at Columbia University last week, New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams said that many of them were outside agitators, not students attending the university.
Outside activist groups trained university students for months on civil unrest, according to The Wall Street Journal. One of the groups involved in training students, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, has expressed open support for Hamas. The Columbia University administration banned the group from campus twice, accusing it of supporting terrorism.
The protests have canceled classes, shut down campuses, and endangered Jewish students. Last week, a Jewish student was denied entry to an anti-Israel protest at MIT, but police eventually agreed to escort him through the encampment.
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The unrest over the Israel-Hamas conflict is part of a push from Biden’s left flank to cut off U.S. support for Israel. Biden appears to have made overtures to leftists, investing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into building a pier to facilitate aid into Gaza and increasing pressure on Israel to provide assistance, as well.
The campus unrest has sparked a backlash from more moderate Democrats. Biden spoke from the White House last week condemning violence and illegality on university campuses. The president condemned “Islamophobia” alongside antisemitism during his remarks.
“There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans,” Biden said.