Congress to Probe Organizations Supporting Pro-Hamas Campus Protests

It should be obvious to anyone who has been watching the various pro-Hamas protests on the nation's college campuses that these events were not spontaneous. There are too many indicators that these things were (at least in the short term) planned: fields full of identical tents and neatly pre-printed signs in the hundreds. This isn't something that sprang into being overnight.

On Tuesday, two congressional Republicans asked the Treasury Department to hand over documents related to groups that may be funding these protests.

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.

The groups named in the request form a who's-who of far-left voices who oppose Israel:

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."

Among the most generous funders of these pro-Hamas protests are the George Soros-backed U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) and the Rockefeller Brothers-supported group Defense for Children International-Palestine.

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Representatives Comer and Foxx intend to use the outcome of this investigation to craft legislation calling for increased scrutiny of foreign funding for campus groups and activities, although it's difficult to see how such a law could prevent these strongly ideological groups from funding protests; a large part of whatever outside support the recent protests have received appears to be logistical, as per the aforementioned strangely identical tents and signs. Any such legislation would only drive this support into more underground channels.

Rep. Comer, in a statement, said:

"Reports now indicate multiple leftist organizations are leading efforts to fund and encourage these hateful and unlawful encampments," he said. "As part of a House-wide effort to address this issue, the House Oversight and Education and Workforce Committees are determined to follow the money trail—something that our committees are very good at doing."

It's unclear how any legislation would affect state sponsors of this campus unrest, for example, Qatar, which has spent $6 billion not only in funding for American universities but in direct lobbying of U.S. politicians.

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