Pro-Hamas Protests Funded by Biden's Own Political Donors

The pro-Palestinian, antisemitic protests on university campuses across the nation are funded by President Joe Biden’s own political donors — which could explain why he hesitates to condemn them and won’t investigate them.

Biden equivocated last month when asked to react to the protests, saying that he condemned the antisemitism but also condemned those “who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” which puzzled observers.

Research by NGO Monitor and others into the donors behind the protests has turned up familiar names from the Democratic Party bankroll — including George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and other liberal philanthropies.

Biden’s Department of Justice has notably refused to investigate the civil rights abuses being committed by the “encampments” — against Jews, journalists, and others — and has also refused to consider RICO conspiracy charges.

Biden can’t condemn antisemitism without protecting the perpetrators by condemning whatever it is they claim to be victims of. But regardless — why not go further? Where are the civil rights investigations, the RICO prosecutions? He’s protecting his donors https://t.co/V9P8jSxk6n

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) May 2, 2024

The reason may be that he does not want to subject his own political donors to investigation or embarrassment.

Politico reported Sunday (original links):

Two of the main organizers behind protests at Columbia University and on other campuses are Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow. Both are supported by the Tides Foundation, which is seeded by Democratic megadonor George Soros as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and it in turn supports numerous small nonprofits that work for social change. (Gates did not return a request for comment, and Soros declined to comment.)

Another notable Democratic donor whose philanthropy has helped fund the protest movement is David Rockefeller Jr., who sits on the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In 2022, the fund gave $300,000 to the Tides Foundation; according to nonprofit tax forms, Tides has given nearly $500,000 over the past five years to Jewish Voice for Peace, which explicitly describes itself as anti-Zionist.

Several other groups involved in pro-Palestinian protests are backed by a foundation funded by Susan and Nick Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt Hotel empire — and supporters of Biden and numerous Democratic campaigns, including $6,600 to the Biden Victory Fund a few months ago and more than $300,000 during the 2020 campaign.

Update: Politico has since updated its article with a correction that alters a few minor details:

An earlier version of this report misstated that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seeds the Tides Foundation’s work. It no longer has active grants to Tides. It also said POLITICO contacted Gates. POLITICO contacted an agency that has represented the Gates Foundation but did not reach out directly to Gates. It said IfNotNow was one of two of the main organizations behind the protests. IfNotNow is supporting protests, but students are leading them. And it misstated the year Rockefeller Brothers Fund donated to Tides and that the donations to Jewish Voice for Peace went through an intermediary. The donations to Tides took place prior to 2022, and the Fund directly contributed to Jewish Voice for Peace.

(In other words, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is not involved; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is directly involved with Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Pritzker and Soros donations to the radical groups are unchallenged.)

The fact that Democratic Party mega-donors are behind the antisemitic protests may also spur Jewish voters — roughly 70% of whom vote Democratic — to consider changing their votes in 2024.

As Caroline Glick notes at the Jewish News Syndicate, Biden has been obsessing over losing Arab- and Muslim-American votes in Michigan — but there may be more Jewish votes to lose in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and others.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Pro-Hamas Protests Funded by Biden’s Own Political Donors

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