Jewish billionaire George Soros’s foundation linked to pro-Palestine protests on US campuses

George Soros, the Jewish Left-leaning philanthropist, and associations funded by him are reportedly fuelling the country-wide pro-Palestinian protests on American campuses.

The protests, which started at Columbia University last week, have spread to universities and colleges across more than eight states.

Camp sites, called the ‘Liberated Zones’ came up at one campus after another, including Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, the Ohio State University and Emory in Georgia — all organised by branches of the George Soros-funded body, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), reported The New York Post.

The SJP has been funded by a network of non-profit organisations which were in turn funded by Soros, a billionaire who is known as “the man who destabilised the Bank of England”.

At three universities, demonstrations are being spurred on by paid activists who are “fellows” of an organisation funded by George Soros, known as the ‘US Campaign for Palestinian Rights’ (USCPR), according to the New York Post report.

However, an analysis by The Washington Times tried to argue otherwise. “The connection between the protests and funding from Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) is so tenuous as to be obviously contrived,” said the opinion piece titled ‘The dishonest — and ironic — push to blame campus protests on George Soros’.

“It’s just vague insinuations leveraging well-worn rhetoric and a pre-existing visceral response to the Jewish billionaire,” the analysis says.

At the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University, protesting students were seen using tents seemingly purchased from Amazon and getting pizzas delivered, sipping coffee from Dunkin’, complimentary sandwiches of $12.50 from Pret a Manger, organic tortilla chips, and $10 rotisserie chickens, reported The New York Post.

The report also mentioned three fellows who have been leading the protests on US campuses.

Nidaa Lafi, the former president of the University of Texas Students for Justice in Palestine, led protestors at UT Dallas where she demanded an end to the war in Gaza.

Lafi, who was earlier detained for blocking President Biden’s motorcade, was also mentioned in the report.

Yale’s USCPR’s fellow Craig Birckhead-Morton was held by the police and was charged with first-degree trespassing when his group, Yalies4Palestine, occupied the campus lawns, according to the Yale Daily News.

The report said that the USCPR gives around $7,800 to its community-based fellows and an amount of $2,880 and $3,660 to its campus-based fellows in lieu of spending eight hours a week organising “campaigns led by Palestinian organisations.”

“They are trained to rise up, to revolution,” added the NYP report.

The SJP has received at least $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017, reported DailyMail, and also took in $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019, according to the NYP.

Berkeley’s Malak Afaneh, the co-president of the Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, addressed several anti-Israel protests on the campus this week.

The New York Post said that all three were paid by groups linked to Soros.

The SJP had termed the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel “a historic win.”

“We refuse to engage with baseless claims regarding our funding in the middle of a genocide funded, militarily supported, and politically backed by the United States,” Students for Justice in Palestine told The Washinton Post.