Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell referred to the nationwide protests as “a dangerous situation” in an interview conducted on Sunday.
As anti-Israel protests against the Gaza war continue to envelop American universities, demonstrators at Harvard University hoisted the Palestinian flag over the John Harvard statue in Harvard Yard, a spot which is designated for the American flag.
Since the mass arrests at Columbia University in New York on April 18, there have been almost 900 arrests made nationwide.
The incident that occurred on Saturday at Harvard University occurred because pro-Palestine demonstrators have refused to end their continuous agitation on the Ivy League university campus.
According to the student newspaper, Harvard Crimson, three Palestinian flags were flown over the campus on Saturday night. Protesters yelled “Shame!” and chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as Harvard Yard Operations employees took down the flags.
Meanwhile, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed on Sunday at the University of California, Los Angeles. Demonstrators reportedly tore down a barrier the school had erected to keep the two groups apart, according to the Reuters news agency.
Students at George Washington University in Washington, DC, set up scores of tents in a park and on a nearby street as part of ongoing protests on Sunday, according to CNN. Protesters chanted “Free Palestine” as they waved Palestinian flags and some wore traditional keffiyehs.
Palestinian students organized a show of solidarity at a camp for refugees in southern Gaza’s Rafah, CNN reported, as a way to thank US college campuses for their support. The students held banners that said “Students of Columbia University, continue to stand by us”.
There have been reports of vandalism on University of Southern California property. According to the university, it was done “by individuals who are part of the group that has continued to illegally camp on our campus”.
Speaking about the ongoing demonstrations, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby stated that while President Joe Biden “knows that there are very strong feelings,” local authorities will be in charge of overseeing the demonstrations.
The Tufts University’s Medford-Somerville campus in Massachusetts stated in a statement on Sunday that the protest encampment “must end ideally peacefully and voluntarily” in order to “celebrate the class of 2024 at Commencement without disruptions.”
Negotiations between student protesters and administrators to end the protests reached a deadlock when “students made clear on social media that they will not accept anything less than their original demands,” according to a statement from Sally Kornbluth, the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University have persisted for the past two weeks due to a breakdown in talks between the administration and the demonstrating students. Over the past weekend, there have been no arrests.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell referred to the nationwide protests as “a dangerous situation” in an interview conducted on Sunday. “There’s also antisemitism, which is completely unacceptable. I’ve been shocked to see that in this country,” he told NBC News.
Jewish billionaire reportedly funding pro-Palestine protests in US
New reports have revealed that George Soros, a Jewish philanthropist known for his left-leaning views, and organizations funded by him, are allegedly supporting nationwide pro-Palestinian protests on American college campuses.
The protests, which initially began at Columbia University, have now spread to universities and colleges across more than eight states.
These demonstrations, known as ‘Liberated Zones,’ have emerged on various campuses, including Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, the Ohio State University, and Emory in Georgia. They are said to be organized by branches of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group funded by George Soros, as reported by The New York Post.
The SJP has received funding from a network of nonprofit organizations that, in turn, have received funding from Soros, a billionaire famously known for his involvement in the Bank of England’s destabilization.
According to The New York Post, demonstrations at three universities have been driven by paid activists who are affiliated with an organization funded by Soros called the ‘US Campaign for Palestinian Rights’ (USCPR).
However, The Washington Times published an analysis that attempts to argue against this claim. The analysis, titled ‘The dishonest—and ironic—push to blame campus protests on George Soros,’ argues that the connection between the protests and funding from Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) is weak and contrived. It suggests that the allegations rely on vague insinuations, leveraging familiar rhetoric and pre-existing biases against the Jewish billionaire.
During the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University, protesting students were observed using tents seemingly purchased from Amazon, receiving pizza deliveries, drinking coffee from Dunkin’, and enjoying complimentary sandwiches from Pret a Manger worth $12.50. The report by The New York Post also highlighted three fellows who have been leading the protests on American campuses.
Nidaa Lafi, former president of the University of Texas Students for Justice in Palestine, led protests at UT Dallas, where she called for an end to the conflict in Gaza. Lafi, who had been detained previously for blocking President Biden’s motorcade, was mentioned in the report.
Craig Birckhead-Morton, a fellow of Yale’s USCPR, was arrested for first-degree trespassing when his group, Yalies4Palestine, occupied the campus lawns, according to the Yale Daily News.
The report also mentioned that USCPR provides approximately $7,800 to its community-based fellows and $2,880 to $3,660 to its campus-based fellows in exchange for eight hours of weekly organizing for “campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.”
The report from The New York Post stated that these fellows are trained to rise up and bring about revolution.
Since 2017, SJP has received at least $300,000 from Soros’s Open Society Foundations, as reported by DailyMail. Additionally, it has received $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019, according to The New York Post.
Malak Afaneh, co-president of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, addressed several anti-Israel protests on the Berkeley campus.
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The New York Post claimed that all three individuals mentioned in the report were paid by groups connected to Soros.
In response to allegations about their funding, Students for Justice in Palestine said to The Washington Post, “We refuse to engage with baseless claims regarding our funding in the middle of a genocide funded, militarily supported, and politically backed by the United States.”
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