NYPD Says International Donations Aiding Campus Protests
The New York Police Department (NYPD) said that its investigation uncovered information about international funding aiding the campus protests against Israel. The revelation comes amid wider concerns over the tenor and growth of the protest, including the rise of antisemitism.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard said that the police department believed that “outside agitators and influences” were involved with the protests. He called the “professionals” who could avoid arrest.
Sheppard said that such individuals may “fly in for a day or two, and leave” and traveled across the United States to attend protests.
“And they have funding. They are funded by private individuals around the world sometimes,” he said.
The comments also came after revelations that the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group received more than $3 million annually from charity groups with links to the terrorist group Hamas.
Hamas conducted the Oct. 7 attack last year in Israel that killed about 1,200 people.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) got millions from charities with alleged links to Hamas, per new report.
SJP is one of the main organisers of the Columbia University protests.
The report by think tank Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy called for… pic.twitter.com/MogzDuA3lL
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 4, 2024
The police cleared out an occupation of an academic building by the protesters. This resulted in numerous arrests and came after students created a tent city in one of the main squares of the campus.
Following the break-up of the student occupation, the NYPD announced that it discovered literature that said ‘Death to America’ and included anti-Israel slogans.
The protests represented the fusion of a number of Islamist and socialist themes and included both students on campus and people coming in from the outside. One of the protesters at Columbia is the wife of a man who admitted to sending money to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Some of the protesters continued their demonstrations into the last week, including disrupting a graduation ceremony in Michigan. Furthermore, the protesters also blocked Jewish students from attending class through a human chain.
In another case at Rutgers University last week the university barred a pro-Israel barbecue due to the role of the protesters nearby. The barbecue was forced to move to a nearby location and be catered by a private restaurant.
