Who's Behind the Anti-Israel Campus Protests?
Tracking the funding and the information flow that fuels the protests
Since the Hamas atrocities of 10/7 and throughout the on-going campus protests, millions of words have been written, thousands of photos and video clips have been presented, and even a few infographics have been created—all in an attempt to "understand." But to my knowledge, no one has attempted to identify and diagram the entities that are involved in the current anti-Israel/anti-Semitic campus protests or present an overview of the money and information trail that has led those protests. This article tries to fill that void.
Introduction
Anti-Israel protests began on elite college campuses nationwide within 24 hours of the October 7th atrocities committed by Hamas. Because of the speed with which they occurred, it was obvious that those protests were not organic. Preprinted anti-Israel signs appeared within hours, Palestinian and Hamas flags were distributed and raised high, activists were positioned to coordinate the protests, emphasize the appropriate talking points, and manage the media message.
The demonstrations rapidly became anti-Semitic with eliminationist chants of "from the river to the sea" and predictable psychological projection by the Pro-Hamas crowd. The projection incorporated absurd claims of "apartheid" and "genocide"—things that Israel's enemies have done and advocate doing. Student protestors parroted an historically ignorant narrative that indigenous people—the Jews— who had lived in the region for millennia were "colonizers."
As the protests spread across the country, they served to distract from the rape, murder, mutilation, infanticide, and kidnapping perpetrated against 1,400 Israeli citizens by Hamas and cheered by 3 in 4 Palestinians (according to Arab polling). Today, protests have grown increasingly threatening and have become overtly anti-Semitic, causing some institutions to cancel classes and graduation ceremonies.
All of this leads to more than a few questions:
Who coordinated these protests?
Who provided the funding for everything from ready-made signs and flags to transportation and tents?
Who provided a game plan for protest logistics, talking points, and media?
Was there any coordination between the protestors and any political party in the USA?
What level of coordination occurred between protest organizers and select university faculty and administrators?
Were the universities themselves indirectly complicit?
Were elements of the legacy media complicit in hyping the protests and defending them from criticism?
How many of the anti-Israel/pro-Hamas "activists" who appear on college campuses are paid and by whom?
Are anti-Israel faculty firebrands at elite colleges and universities getting monetary grants for "research" in return for proselytizing in favor of Islamist ideology?
Why have the FBI and other government agencies been silent about any investigation into this vile level of dangerous anti-Semitic behavior?
Although there have been attempts here and there, the mainstream media has done relatively little to answer these questions. It's almost as if they don't really want to dig too deep.
Some suggest that the best way to get answers is to 'follow the money.' But that's easier said than done. In my one-person investigation, it became readily apparent that the money trail is faint. On the trail are publicly-recognizable foundations, well-known NGOs, major government and quasi-governmental organizations (e.g., the U.N. and the E.U.), dozens of shadowy anti-Israel groups, leftist agitators, educational institutions and members of their faculty, politicians (mostly hard-left) and others. All are involved either directly or indirectly in feeding what I call the "Pyramid of Lies" (see also, here and here)—a collection of false narratives, unsubstantiated claims, ahistorical statements, unreliable data provided by proven liars, and, of course, outright propaganda. The Pyramid of Lies is a way station along the information trail.
As I traversed the money trail, I learned that understanding the campus protests takes more than 'following the money.' It's also critical to 'follow the information.' Funding enables anti-Israel entities to produce information that can be used as propaganda to influence the beliefs of college protesters, as long as it coincides with the protestor's overarching ideological belief system. Hence, we see Islamist entities aligning with leftist entities, using the jargon (e.g., the Marxist "oppressed" and "oppressor" meme or the “anti-colonialist” narrative that is popular within many university curricula).
Some entities along the money and information trail focus mainly on anti-Israel activities. Other groups work on co-opting both K-12 and higher education in the West. Still others use their desire for social justice or humanitarian aid to obscure their anti-Israel activities. And others use social media or political action or university faculty to deliver their message to students on campus.
The Investigation
I used publicly available sources to answer some of the questions posed in the introduction to this article. The flow of money and information (dis-information?) is complex, involving many different entities that span international boundaries. I created a graphical representation of the flow of money and information, called a "Connections Diagram." The diagram illustrates the complex web of entities involved in anti-Israel activities and their direct or indirect connection to the current anti-Israel/pro-Hamas campus demonstrations.
Before beginning a discussion of the connections and their relevance to campus protests, a few caveats:
All flows of money that move between entities are at best estimates. Money is transferred using cut-outs, the trail is obfuscated by multiple layers of transfers, bookkeeping is sloppy and purposely imprecise, many transfers are suspected of occurring using cash or cryptocurrency (difficult to trace), and some of the funds (particularly transfers among the most shadowy of the entities are suspected of using Hawala—an ancient and untraceable method of money transfer used by Arab and Muslim traders.
I have undoubtedly omitted some entities that should be included and have probably over-emphasized more than one connection. But all connections do exist; there is considerable synergy between the entities that focus on anti-Israel propaganda and those that have been behind the scenes enabling, funding, and coordinating college protests.
There is also little doubt that some of the entities noted in this article are what might be characterized as humanitarian bystanders. Some NGOs truly do want to provide humanitarian aid to suffering people; others have a warped but still defensible view of social justice, and act accordingly. But all know (or at least suspect) that a non-trivial percentage of the money they provide to "the Palestinians" in Gaza is syphoned off by Hamas. As a consequence, every entity (including the United States Government) that provides funds for "humanitarian relief" helps to fund Hamas along with the atrocities it perpetrates and the propaganda it produces. It is that propaganda that fuels the campus protests.
To say the very least, billions of dollars in funding move across the Connections Diagram that is presented in the next section. In some cases, the amounts are quite small—enough to "pay" for campus protest resources and to put paid activists in place. In other situations, the sums are enormous, funding programs at many American Universities, allowing anti-Israel organizations to grow the Pyramid of Lies and thereby indirectly influence the anti-Israel talking points used in the protests and demonstrations.
The Connections
In the Connections Diagram presented below, each “bubble” represents an entity that has some involvement in direct or indirect funding of: (1) anti-Israel activities and propaganda both in the U.S. and internationally; (2) Hamas, and (3) campus protests and demonstrations.
Referring to the Connections Diagram (you should enlarge it or download a copy here), campus demonstrations/protests and the entities and money immediately connected to them are shown on the left (that positioning seemed appropriate). On the right of the diagram are entities that are directly or indirectly involved in: (1) funding Hamas and (2) funneling money into American universities, where many of the anti-Israel (and anti-Semitic) positions are incubated.
Each bubble (circled name) in the diagram represents an entity, The arrows connecting the entities represent connections—either monetary (money/resources are transferred) or influential (information is transferred). The bubbles in orange are directly connected to the campus protests. Arrows coming into those entities can be traced backward to determine other entities that are involved in funding or influencing them. Bubbles in yellow are involved, but once removed from the protests. Bubbles in white are not directly involved in funding the protests, but may be directly or indirectly involved in funding anti-Israel activities that are often malevolent and sometimes terroristic. Bubbles in red are bad actors who want Israel destroyed. Bubbles with a double boundary have an outsized influence on the flow of funding and the flow of information (either good or bad).
Entities on the left of the diagram (associated with the campus protests) and the right of the diagram are connected via "The Pyramid of Lies" at the center of the diagram. Much of what campus protestors "know" about Gaza and Israel is egregiously wrong. Palestinian claims to the land, to statehood, about "genocide," about "colonialism," and many, many other histroical and present day claims have been bolstered by propaganda developed by many Middle Eastern entities as well as some political entities shown in this connection diagram. They feed propaganda into the Pyramid, and naive students extract and believe it.
Money provides support for protest logistics and the resources required to create video bites. But the real driver for campus protests comes from the entities on the center right side of the Connections Diagram—both the originators of propaganda that feed the Pyramid of Lies and the monetary sources that allow the originators to do their work. The propaganda flows from the Pyramid toward students who shout vapid slogans and blatant anti-Semitic chants. It feeds their need for relevance and masks their abject ignorance of the actual history that pervades the region.
Navigating the Connections
To help you understand how to read the connections diagram, it might be worth exploring a few examples. I would suggest that you download the diagram before you read through the remainder of this section.
Example #1: Direct Funding Sources for the Campus Protests
Starting at the top left of the Connections Diagram, you'll note that at least two mainstream foundations, including the Soros Open Society Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation provide funds (estimated at $1.4 million in total) for two entities—Education for Just Peace in the Middle East (EJPME) and Wespac. Both of these entities provide funding for two additional entities. EJPME provides support for US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, an entity that offers stipends for “campus youth fellows“ and other "community fellows." These stipends range from a low of about $2.3K for a 3-month hire to a high of $7.8K. These 'fellows" are paid for coordination, logistics and planning that is required for the campus demonstrations to have an impact.
Westpac funds an entity called American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) that provides resources and logistics for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an activist group with branches at over 200 colleges in universities across the country. The violent, hard-left extremist group, Antifa, recently appeared in the background at some campuses and joins in protests to provide muscle when violence and or intimidation are required. Antifa was criminally active during the riots in the summer of 2020 with members accused of everything from extreme violence to arson. It should be noted that all of the entities represented in orange bubbles are influenced by the narratives and propaganda that flow out of the Pyramid of Lies.
Example #2: The Influence of the Universities on Protestors
American universities have established a culture that is fertile ground for anti-Israel demonstrations. The vast majority of elite colleges and universities have become incubators for a leftist ideology that has never been friendly to Israel. In the immediate aftermath of the atrocities committed by Hamas on 10/7, the false narratives and propaganda contained within the Pyramid of Lies were amplified by "pro-Palestinian" activists and used as justification for the protests that immediately followed 10/7 (before any Israeli response to the atrocities occurred). The Hamas-Israel war gave rise to absurd claims of “genocide” (ironic given that the Hamas charter suggests that killing all Jews "from the river to the sea" is a viable option). With that as a backdrop, let's examine the flow of information fueling campus protests from the right of the diagram.
To better understand this, examine the upper right portion of the Connections Diagram. Middle Eastern countries donate a minimum of $10.8 billion to American universities. Of that sum, Qatar is the most significant benefactor providing approximately $5.1 billion in funding to those same universities. These funds are used (with the insistence of the benefactors) to set up Middle East Studies departments (funded with at least $1.2 billion), hire University Faculty who are uniformly left-leaning, generally anti-Israel, and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. These faculty interact directly with undergraduate students, many of whom have become anti-Israel true believers. The faculty (subsidized by monies provided by Middle Eastern entities) also perform "research" that feeds into the Pyramid of Lies.
The idea that Jews have colonized the region has been espoused by members of many Middle Eastern Studies departments and comes straight out of the Marxist playbook. The colonization narrative, along with many others, populate the Pyramid and is eventually consumed by student protesters who think they're demanding social justice and fighting colonialism and genocide. As you learned in Example #1, paid activists coordinate the protests, conduct “workshops” that reinforce the narrative, and subtly introduce not only anti-Israel rhetoric, but outright Jew-hatred.
Example #3: Funding Hamas
Although the plight of Gaza is a core talking point at every campus protest, it would seem that funding for Hamas would be far removed from the campus protests themselves. But that is not the case.
Looking at the lower right hand corner of the Connections Diagram, you’ll note that the United States, the UN, the EU, and politicized NGOs provide substantial sums to Gaza. The GDP of Gaza is approximately $20 billion, and it is estimated that Hamas extracts approximately 18% of that sum. The same goes for all other monies that flow into Gaza. In addition, because smuggling is rampant across the Egyptian border Gaza collects what is sometimes called a “smuggling tax” that amounts to $300 million a year.
Iran provides Hamas with a yearly stipend of between $70 million and $100 million. The country’s leadership regularly calls for the destruction of Israel, is virulently anti-Semitic, and has threatened the stability of the Middle East for multiple generations. It is a bad actor.
Politicized NGOs also have a significant role to play. Over the years, NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Oxfam, International Federation for Human Rights, and many others, not only provide funding for humanitarian purposes within Gaza, but have also taken an anti-Israel stance, providing reinforcement for Hamas propaganda as it becomes part of the Pyramid of Lies. In an indirect manner, the NGO are complicit in feeding propaganda to the students who are demonstrating on American campuses.
Example #4: The Influence of leftist Ideologues
Referring to the lower left hand portion of the Connections Diagram, it's interesting to note that Hamas (and other Islamist groups) prepared an official statement of support for leftist entities that are participating in the Campus protests. The Islamist groups recognize who their friends and defenders are.
Back tracing along arrows entering the Leftist Student Protestors bubble, Activists from the Global Left provide student protesters with talking points and resources while at the same time supporting both individuals and groups on TicToc that use the social media platform to present student protesters and millions of others with anti-Semitic content. The content comes directly from TicToc but also become part of the Pyramid of Lies.
From the right of the Connections Diagram, you'll note a long arrow emanating from University Faculty and ending at the Leftist Student Protesters. At many elite universities between 70 and 80 percent of all faculty identify as left of center. It should come as no surprise that their ideological bias pervades their teaching and their attitudes toward Israel.
The consequences are obvious. The information flowing toward the students uses the language and concepts that they have already adopted, providing a level of confirmation bias that is difficult to overcome.
There is one very important entity that is missing from the Connections Diagram and these examples—the media (main stream, social and entertainment). I have written extensively on the role of media in normalizing the insanity we are seeing on college campuses and elsewhere. In this context and many others, the media actively promote many of the lies the spew from the Pyramid, misrepresent the aggressive, anti-Semitic nature of the campus protests, and become apologists for entities that are clearly anti-Israel. They are everywhere in the flow of information that fuels the protests.
Summary
As I waded through the many sources that enabled me to develop the Connections Diagram, I learned a few things:
The money trail is complex and obscure. It’s extremely difficult to provide reliable estimates on many of the transfers indicated simply by "$" in the Connections Diagram.
The anti-Israel and anti-Semitic campus demonstrations have been funded and coordinated by a variety of different pro-Palestinian groups that are themselves funded by charitable foundations and NGO’s that are aggressively anti-Israel.
The college students who participate in the campus demonstrations are encouraged by activists who help with coordination, logistics, and planning. These activists are sometimes paid for their work by anti-Israel entities.
The underlying catalyst for the fervor exhibited by the student demonstrators has little to do with the funding. It is driven by information that flows out of the Pyramid of Lies. That information has been created by hundreds of anti-Israel entities (including Hamas itself), by anti-Israel activists that are present at almost all campus protests, by university faculty, and by hard-left organizations and politicians who are clearly anti-Israel.
Social media (notably TicToc) has played a role in normalizing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic language and positions.
In a recent on-line interview with The Federalist, a student journalist at Columbia University commented on the overriding sentiment among students participating in the campus protest. He suggested that the protesters are "“very much about being anti-Western, anti-capitalist, anti-American essentially.” In the end, being anti-Israel is part of that package, and being anti-Semitic is the equivalent of the primal screams of petulant children.
References
In doing this investigation, the following sources were used:
Understanding campus protestors: https://thefederalist.com/2024/04/27/to-understand-campus-protesters-the-right-should-dig-much-deeper/
Palestinian protest enablers: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/s-palestinian-protests-us-rcna143666
Behind Pali protests: https://www.wsj.com/articles/whos-behind-the-anti-israel-protests-hamas-gaza-hezbollah-talking-points-d2f538ca?mod=opinion_lead_pos5
Paid protesters: (1) https://www.wsj.com/articles/some-anti-israel-protesters-are-paid-soros-rockefeller-funding-activism-hamas-fba26c20?mod=hp_opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s (2) jewishjournal dot com/commentary/columnist/365220/the-inside-story-of-how-palestinians-took-over-the-world/
Samdoun Network: https://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/global-samidoun-network/
PFLP NGO Network: https://www.ngo-monitor.org/reports/summary-pflps-ngo-network/
Donations to Democrat politicians: https://nypost.com/2023/11/11/news/squad-took-thousands-from-nonprofit-under-investigation-for-funding-hamas/
Qatar funding of universities: https://www.ft.com/content/d0a16f75-8b05-4ff9-b5f1-d473d7f5a704’’
Arab funding of American Universities: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/arab-funding-of-american-universities-donors-recipients-and-impact-2023 U.S Support of Palestinian People (Hamas?): https://www.state.gov/u-s-support-for-the-palestinian-people/
Ford Foundation: https://www.ngo-monitor.org/funder/ford_foundation/ Amnesty International: (1) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/P-9-2023-003471_EN.html (2) https://www.cfr.org/blog/amnesty-international-and-hamas
Students for Justice in Palestine: https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/national-students-for-justice-in-palestine/
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP): https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-muslims-for-palestine/
CAIR funding: https://islamism.news/data-center/who-funds-cair/
UNRWA funding: (1) https://press.un.org/en/2023/ga12505.doc.htm (2) https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12316
Anti-Semitic information in K-12 education: https://www.city-journal.org/article/crack-down-on-anti-semitic-k-12-curricula
Anti-Semitic information in higher education: https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4621154-3-reasons-antisemitism-is-swarming-college-campuses/
College faculty bias: (1) https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Political-identification-of-college-professors-by-field_tbl1_40823273 (2) https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/7/13/faculty-survey-political-leaning/
You may find this interview with Prof. James Kurth of interest in this regard...
https://youtu.be/tbSJxQrWXlM?si=y0tdTIwqIglOxw-K