Investigative journalists have uncovered a connection between pro-Hamas billionaires and the pro-Gaza riots taking place across U.S. college campuses.
According to the Washington Times, a forthcoming analysis by the Capital Research Center, which describes itself as “America’s investigative think tank,” found that “the vast majority” of groups behind ongoing protests on college campuses “are operating as fronts for Hamas.”
The Washington Times spoke with Capital Research Center investigator Ryan Mauro about the report. Mauro admitted that he was “shocked” by what he found.
“They didn’t put any effort into trying to hide the fact that this is a Hamas-driven thing,” Mauro said.
Mauro told the Times that he examined over 100 organizations involved in the campus protests, and that most of them “harbor pro-Hamas messaging.”
The data used for the report purports to show that some of the groups supporting the campus protests, including George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, have been linked to causes such as the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, whose mission is to “end U.S. complicity in Israel’s massive violence against the Palestinian people.”
Soros’ group donated $700,000 to the USCPR from 2018-2022 under the group’s official name, Education for Just Peace in the Middle East. The description of the 2018 donation on Open Society’s website said it was for the promotion of “freedom, justice, and equality in a world without racism and oppression.”
Newsweek reported that USCPR fellows have been among those involved in the protests, including Craig Birckhead-Morton, a senior history major at Yale University and Malak Afaneh, a law student at the University of California-Berkeley.
Birckhead-Morton was reportedly arrested by Yale police last week when they cleared a pro-Palestine encampment on Yale’s campus. Afaneh has been active in organizing protests on her campus, and even interrupted a backyard dinner at the home of the dean of the law school with other activists, Newsweek reported.
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In 2018, the Tablet reported that the USCPR was “the fiscal sponsor of a group called the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the main West Bank and Gaza-based cohort advocating for sanctions against Israel.” BDS stands for boycott, divestment and sanctions — the strategy of financially penalizing an organization to force cooperation.
The National Council of Nonprofits defines a fiscal sponsor as an organization that performs administrative actions, including “taking on the responsibility of receiving and administering charitable contributions ” on behalf of an organization that has not yet received 501(c)(3) status as a nonprofit.
According to the BNC’s website, one of its members is the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, also known as the PNIF. Five of members of the PNIF are designated as terrorist groups by the United States, according to Tablet: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad the Palestine Liberation Front, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Popular Front – General Command.
Mauro also told the Washington Times that one of the largest protest organizers, Students for Justice in Palestine, is receiving indirect funding from Open Society.
Open Society has given millions of dollars in grants to the Tides Foundation over the years for a multitude of causes. The Washington Times reported that the Tides Foundation provides funding for the Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation. Mauro said that WESPAC is the fiscal sponsor of Students for Justice in Palestine.
There is no public evidence that Open Society has directly awarded grants to WESPAC.
PolitiFact reported that the WESPAC, Open Society and Students for Justice in Palestine all denied any direct connection between their respective organizations.
It quoted and Open Society post on social media platform X, which said, in part, “We have a long history of fighting antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism and hate, and have advocated for the rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” The post invited readers to look at the group’s public funding records.
However, based on his investigation of the data, Mauro suggested that anyone who believes the college campus protests don’t have anti-Semitic roots should look closer.
“Yes, the students organize it independently, to some degree,” Mauro said to the Washington Times. “But where do they find other support? It starts with these groups, and then the students will have their own spin.”
It’s important to note that, even though the connections seem attenuated, they do, in fact, appear to be there.
The revelation makes it more difficult for the protesters to argue against the demonstrations being anti-Semitic in nature, especially given that organizing members are a part of the USCPR.
The New York Post reported that Soros-funded local chapters of the Students for Justice in Palestine organized many of the pro-Palestine encampments, including those at Yale and UC Berkeley.
It doesn’t help that Iran and Hamas have publicly praised the ongoing protests, USA Today reported.
Hopefully, the Capital Research Center’s full report will be able to connect the dots and show just how close the connection is between these organizations and the student protests.
