Anti-Israel agitators were arrested at universities across the country this week
Who’s really behind Students for Justice in Palestine?
Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Jonathan Schanzer discusses the organizations founding and funding and reacts to AOC calling the campus protests ‘peaceful.’
Progressive anti-Israel agitators across the country, including those who mobilized at New York City’s Columbia University, are associated with groups tied to far-left groups with radical associations backed by dark money and liberal mega-donor George Soros.
National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), a national organization affiliated with around 200 independent chapters, has had a vocal presence at Columbia University in recent days and at one point said it had walked away from talks with school leaders until administrators pledge not to have them arrested or forcefully removed from their encampment on the Ivy League institution's West Lawn.
NSJP operates under Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation (WESPAC), a fiscal sponsor, whom Fox News Digital previously reported received a six-figure donation from a nonprofit bankrolled by the George Soros network. WESPAC, whose funding is largely unknown, has espoused anti-israel rhetoric for years, including accusing the government of "apartheid," "ethnic cleansing," "collective punishment" and "war crimes," according to NGO Monitor.
NSJP regularly compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow era in the United States, accuses Israel of genocide, and has routinely promoted Hamas propaganda since the October 7 attack, Influence Watch reported.
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"Since October 7th, SJP has been extremely aggressive on far too many campuses in threatening ways, including the use of violent, genocidal rally calls which include 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' 'Globalize the Intifada,' and 'there is only one solution, Intifada revolution,'" StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein told Fox News Digital about the group last year after it was suspended by Rutgers University for anti-Israel provocations.
"It is therefore no surprise that increasing numbers of universities are making the decision to suspend a student group that combines violent rhetoric with violations of university policies, threatening Jewish students on campus."
Days after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, SJP released a statement calling the carnage a "historic win for the Palestinian resistance" and claimed, "This is what it means to Free Palestine: not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors."
NSJP’s founder, Hatem Bazian, has a long history of controversial antisemitic statements that include calling for an "intifada" in the United States, defending Hamas on social media, and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and Israel divestment, Canary Mission reported.
An anti-Israel protest encampment at Columbia University. (Peter Gerber)
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Video circulating on social media in recent days shows Bazian on the campus of UC Berkeley the day after the October 7 massacre egging on a crowd and seemingly celebrating the attack.
Bazian — who has donated thousands of dollars to Reps. Summer Lee, D-Pa.; Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. — is currently listed as a lecturer at UC Berkeley's Department of Ethnic Studies.
He also has ties to "Squad" Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who was the "guest of honor" at AMP's annual convention in December 2019 and months earlier in July delivered a briefing organized by AMP to over 70 people. The Michigan Democrat also addressed AMP's Palestine Advocacy Day delegates in April of 2019.
Hungarian-born U.S. investor and Democrat donor George Soros wrote an op-ed in 2007 slamming the U.S. and Israel for not recognizing Hamas' election in Palestine. (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
In addition to Columbia, NSJP has been protesting and setting up encampments at other universities across the country, including UCLA and USC in California and at the University of Texas in Austin, where over 50 people were arrested this week.
Another group active at Columbia, Jewish Voice for Peace, has brought in at least $650,000 from Soros-linked groups since 2016.
JVP has also taken in hundreds of thousands from the billionaire-fueled Rockefeller Fund, which is boosted by millions of dollars from a dark money funding network.
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One page of a pamphlet made available to students at the University of Michigan encampment states, "Freedom for Palestine means Death to America." (Josh Brown)
Influence Watch describes the group as "a left-wing, nominally Jewish group that opposes U.S. assistance to the state of Israel and supports allowing Palestinians to live on land within Israel vacated by Arabs during the Israeli War of Independence."
The group released a statement this week condemning violence and blaming the university for the unrest and for failing to protect Palestinian students.
Fox News Digital reported that JVP was also active at the University of Michigan this week, passing out pamphlets at a tent encampment that contained the phrase "Death to America, among other inflammatory phrases.
Another Soros-backed group, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, has paid what it calls "fellows" to organize and attend anti-Israel protests across the country, New York Post reported.
"The Open Society Foundations has a long history of fighting antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism and hate," a spokesperson for George Soros' Open Society Foundations told Fox News Digital.
"Open Society has funded a broad spectrum of US groups that have advocated for the rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel and the OPT. This funding is a matter of public record, disclosed on our website, fully compliant with US laws, and is part of our commitment to continuing open debate that is ultimately the only hope for peace in the region. The Open Society Foundations proudly support the right of all citizens to peaceful protest — a bedrock principle of our democracy."
Fox News' Houston Keene contributed to this report.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to
