Is George Soros behind anti-Israel protests in Columbia, other US universities? Here's what we know so far

Jewish Left-leaning billionaire and philanthropist George Soros and associations funded by him are reportedly funding the anti-Israel protests at college campuses across the US. The protests, which started at Columbia University last week, have spread to universities and colleges across over 8 states in the US, The New York Post reported. 

The cash from Soros and his associations has been key to the protests in Columbia University. At the Columbia University, three groups set up the tent city last Wednesday. These groups are Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and Within Our Lifetime. 

Following this, copycat tent cities, called the 'Liberated Zones', have also been set up at colleges including Harvard, Yale, and Berkeley in California as well as the Ohio State University and Emory in Georgia, all of which have reportedly been organised by the student branches of the Soros-backed SJP.

The SJP termed the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel as "a historic win". The SJP reportedly received $300,000 from Soros' Open Society Foundations since 2017 and also took in $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019, as per media reports. The Rockefeller Brothers fund is chaired by Joseph Pierson and includes David Rockefeller Jr, a fourth-generation member of the oil dynasty, on its board of directors. 

At some of these copycat tent cities, students have even clashed with the police. According to The New York Post report, the SJP has been funded by a network of non-profit organisations funded by Soros, a billionaire who is known for "destabilising the Bank of England."

At three of these colleges, protests against Israel are being encouraged by radicals who are "fellows" of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestine Rights (USCPR). At an encampment in Columbia University, protesting students were seen using tents reportedly purchased from Amazon and getting pizzas and sipping coffee from Dunkin', complimentary sandwiches from Pret a Manger, organic tortilla chips and rotisserie chickens, as per the report. 

The USCPR gives around $7,800 to its community-based fellows and an amount of $2,800 and $3,660 to its campus-based fellows for spending 8 hours a week to organise "campaigns led by Palestinian organisations."

"They are trained to 'rise up, to revolution'," the NY Post report read. Last week, USCPR fellow Craig Birckhead-Morton was arrested at Yale university and was charged with first-degree trespassing when SJP's branch Yalies4Palestine occupied the school's Beinecke Plaza, as per a Yale Daily News report. Morton, who is also a former intern for Democrat rep John Sarbanes, emerged from custody to address a sit-in blocking traffic in New Haven. 

Commenting on the reports around its funding, the SJP told The Washington Post, "We refuse to engage with baseless claims regarding our funding in the middle of a genocide funding, militarily supported, and politically backed by the United States."