THE FUNDING OF ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

The anti-Israel network fueling antisemitism across America

Research erases any pretense that many campus groups leading anti-Israel actions are independent or grassroots in nature. 

 

By Jonathan and Jordana Seidel  

JNS

Sep 6, 2024

 

A pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel student tent encampment at Brown University in Providence, R.I., April 29, 2024

 

This past academic year, American college campuses saw a massive increase in anti-Israel disruptions and confrontations, often becoming openly antisemitic in nature. The trend is likely to continue into this new school year as well. The campus groups behind this surge are relatively few in number, yet their activities have dominated the news cycle for months, negatively affecting the lives of millions of Americans.

Although the tendency is to think of these campus groups as authentic, standalone, grassroots organizations, the reality is quite different.

The campus-focused groups are a part of a much larger connective network. As the Jerusalem research institute NGO Monitor has documented, they are part of an interconnected web of funders, advocacy groups, lobbyists, legal supports and research centers cooperating to drive an anti-Israel agenda. Research shows both the quantitative and qualitative partnerships between these various groups and erases any pretense of their independent or grassroots nature.

For example, Students for Justice in Palestine and Students for a Democratic Society—two active campus groups—receive funds and assistance from multiple advocacy, law and research groups. Purporting to be student-led, these groups rely heavily on the broader American anti-Israel network to promote and execute their activities and push their agenda.

This network also includes terror-affiliated organizations, such as Samidoun and the Palestine Youth Movement. Samidoun has been designated by Israel as a terrorist group and a “subsidiary” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It has been banned in Germany, and France dissolved a member of the Samidoun Network, Collectif Palestine Vaincra due to “calls for hatred, violence and discrimination.” In America, Discover stopped allowing credit-card donations to the Alliance for Global Justice, Samidoun’s fiscal sponsor, citing the relationship with Samidoun. Since then, other payment processors including PayPal and Stripe have followed suit and stopped working with the alliance.

For its part, the Palestine Youth Movement has a history of defending and glorifying terrorists affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Both groups have praised the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli citizens. Yet these organizations, their members, funding and materials are welcomed by activists on U.S. college campuses and have played a role in amplifying campus turmoil. They have found a prominent place in the American anti-Israel network forming connections and working directly with many of the other groups.

The manner in which this network operates in America, and their extensiveness and expertise, exposes a concentrated effort to spread anti-Israel sentiment across the country—a sentiment that eventually translates to antisemitic rhetoric and actions. This network’s influence is not confined to campuses. Non-student political activists do not shy away from causing disorder off-campus. They have shut down bridges and streets, disrupting daily life, and attacking people’s freedom of movement and speech.

The financial details of most of these organizations are carefully hidden, raising the fundamental question of who is funding these organizations and thus the network. Is the funding coming from foreign entities and perhaps governments? In early July, Avril Haines, the director of the National Intelligence Agency, recognized the role of Iran in influencing American protests and “even providing financial support to protesters.”

The quantity of engaged organizations is truly vast. On any given proposal or flier advertising a confrontation, there may be more than 30 groups listed as co-sponsors. Joint letters or petitions have at times carried more than 200 signatories within the NGO community, demonstrating the linkage between the groups. The depth of their connections is duly noted by their repeated appearances on multiple projects and events.

Another takeaway from our research mapping these organizations and their links is that even organizations that, generally, have nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will add their logo to posters and other advertising materials. This creates a perception of strength in numbers. For the NGOs dedicated to the conflict, this unification across the social-justice strata aims to send the message that their cause is a just one. In other words, they are using quantity to lend faux legitimacy to their cause.

The strong visual appearance of the NGO network—from their demonstrations, flyers and social-media presence—as well as the shared funders and initiatives, has created a coordinated political assault against Israel. Left alone in the darkness to expand the attacks, this network of anti-Israel organizations in the United States will continue to demonize Israel and create tangible fear in American Jewish communities and eventually, among any group that refuses to line up with this extremist agenda.