Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is calling on the Biden administration to investigate groups that fund pro-Palestinan protests at multiple college campuses across the United States.
“By supporting illegal acts while enjoying tax-exempt status, dark-money groups and foundations are defrauding the American people and putting Jewish students and faculty at risk,” Mr. Hawley wrote.
He cited an IRS ruling mandating that “no organization may retain its tax exemption if it backs protests at which members are urged to commit acts of civil disobedience.”
The letter is in response to a May 5 Politico article, which reported that big donors behind President Joe Biden allegedly fund pro-Palestinan campus protests.
According to the article, major organizers supporting campus protests, such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, allegedly received funding from big Democratic donors, including George Soros’s Tides Foundation, David Rockefeller’s Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Susan and Nick Pritzker.
Mr. Hawley then asked Mr. Garland to provide information about the number of protests that receive money from those third-party groups, the names of these groups, and steps to enforce IRS rules against groups funding ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
The letter comes at a time when many protests and encampments on university campuses throughout the nation have erupted in response to Israel’s military action against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The protests first broke out at Columbia University on April 17, then spread to New York University, Yale University, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and others.
Across the country, police have intervened at multiple universities to disperse the protests. Some protests, such as those at UCLA, have escalated into riots.
As of May 6, more than 2,400 have been arrested in pro-Palestinian protests on at least 45 campuses in at least 30 states since the April 18 arrests of 108 Columbia University students in New York City, according to a running tally by The Associated Press and on-the-scene accounts by reporters for The Epoch Times.
Outside Agitators
Law enforcement and school officials said outside agitators played major roles in those protests.New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during an April 30 press conference that he identified “professional protesters” leading demonstrators, many of them nonstudents, onto campuses to confront university officials and police with orchestrated tactics.
On May 1, Mr. Adams said protests in New York City are being “co-opted by professional outside agitators,” emphasizing that the seizure of a Columbia University building “was led by individuals who were not affiliated with the university.”
Officials said outside agitators were also present at the University of Wisconsin and UCLA.
On May 1, Dartmouth University officials said students supporting Palestinians had peacefully demonstrated on campus at least seven times since October 2023, but that many of those engaged in the recent pro-Palestinian protests are not students. The school said it will not allow its campus “to be co-opted by a small group of protesters, including outside agitators.”
