Congress to Investigate Foreign Pro-Hamas Donors to Campus Radicals

The Free Beacon:

Congress on Tuesday initiated a wide-ranging probe into 20 nonprofit groups bankrolling and supporting anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the nation and are petitioning federal authorities to turn over internal documents that could tie them to money laundering and terrorism financing, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Reps. James Comer (R., Ky.) and Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.)--chairs of the House's Committee on Oversight and Accountability and Committee on Education and the Workforce, respectively--asked the Treasury Department to immediately hand over "Suspicious Activity Reports" related to a number of campus groups and nonprofits that are providing resources to anti-Israel campus agitators. Financial institutions file these reports with the federal government if they detect instances of potential money laundering or support for terrorism. The reports could provide proof that several of the organizations behind the anti-Israel protest movement are engaging in prohibited financial activities.

Among the groups named are Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Jewish Voice for Peace, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Tides Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Adalah Justice Project, and Samidoun. All of these groups have been identified as either funders or supporters of the nationwide protest movement, which has seen students establish anti-Israel encampments on college campuses. SJP and AMP, in particular, have emerged as the top organizers of these anti-Israel protests and are being sued by Israeli terror victims, who allege that the groups serve "as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas."

...

The investigation, Comer and Foxx write, "relates both to malign influence on college campuses and to the national security implications of such influence on faculty and student organizations."

The letter also sets the stage for Congress to consider legislation that would strengthen federal transparency laws regarding foreign funding at higher learning institutions, the lawmakers said.

...

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, one of the 20 groups named in the investigation, has awarded around $3.4 million to Hamas-friendly groups since 2018, the Free Beacon reported last year. These amounts include donations to an Israeli-designated Palestinian terror group and other organizations that either fund Hamas or have justified Hamas's attacks on Israel.

Similarly, Open Society Foundations, which is funded by billionaire George Soros, has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups lobbying Congress in favor of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, as well as other groups that are accusing the Jewish state of "genocide."

I believe the suspicion might be that foreigners -- and, more importantly, foreign governments and foreign intelligence/terrorist groups -- are using fronts like Open Society Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers as pass-through entities. So that they can donate to radical (indeed, self-confessedly revolutionary groups) while keeping their participation hidden.

But take note, you can't accuse George Soros of funding antisemitic radicalism on college campuses because that is, in itself, an "antisemitic trope." Just ask the Soros front group the ADL.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:35 PM

| Access Comments