Notice I said "for starters".
It's not "a start" though, is it.
Mayor Adams and Columbia have said there are protesters not affiliated with the school at the encampment. Same with reports form UT Austin and other universities across the country.
And?
Firstly, so what? People can protest even if they're not students. This is not news.
Secondly, how exactly does that indicate some sort of outside funding?
The Palestinian Solidarity Committee is on most college campuses and supply help to protesters, many of which are not affiliated with the school.
Within our Lifetime is another group that helps organize protests.
Several pro-Palestine organizations are operating around the country, including Within Our Lifetime, and do not have public tax filings, according to an NBC investigation.
Instead, they use a progressive New York-based nonprofit group called Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation (WESPAC) as their fiscal sponsor to collect and process online donations. Tax law allows nonprofit groups with a 501(c)(3) status to collect money on behalf of smaller organizations.
Several U.S. organizations are supporting the pro-Palestine movement, leading protests and calling for a ceasefire and divestment.
www.newsnationnow.com
My god! Charitable organisations and political advocacy groups support protests?! The sky must be falling!
Where's the evidence that these protests were astro-turfed?
Other groups have been funded by major U.S. foundations. IfNotNow has received $100,000 in the past five years from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The organization’s stated goal is to “end U.S. support for Israel’s apartheid system.” The fund also awarded close to a half-million dollars to Jewish Voice for Peace, another Palestinian rights organization, over the same period.
At some schools, including UCLA, counter-protest in support of Jewish students have taken shape, escalating on campus-tension. A GoFundMe called “Bruins for Israel” has raised over $81,000 as of Monday to bring a “huge screen and big, loud speakers” to Dickson Plaza for the demonstrators, according to the Daily Bruin – more than double the fundraiser’s goal of $26,000.
Amid the recent wave of demonstrations both on and off college campuses, Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official, said that the organizing parties are not organic but cultivated by potentially dangerous groups.
“They’re extremely organized. There are a lot of the Islamist-leaning groups that I think many of us have come to expect here,” Schanzer told NewsNation. “These are not spontaneous. They are not necessarily organic. They are cultivated by groups that have an axe to grind.”
Again, I see a lot of claims and zero evidence. It's just empty scaremongering.
Really? This is everywhere. How about this:
Columbia University has restricted campus access indefinitely after an anti-Israel mob broke into an academic building early Tuesday morning.
www.foxnews.com
I said "serious crimes". Protests occupying buildings is pretty par-for-the-course.
I agree with peaceful protests about any issue. But they have no right to disrupt other people's lives, threaten them or take over buildings etc.
That depends on how the protest is being treated and what it's about. I would say "disrupting other people's lives" is justified if your argument is against genocide. I'd say on the scale of morality, one significantly outranks the other. Meanwhile, we've had police violently put down peaceful protests across the country.
The government is not against the protests, they are against illegal protest activity. Are you?
I am for freedom of speech, and against genocide. I think "illegal protest activity" isn't as serious a crime as aiding and abetting genocide.
Which matters more? Dead kids or a couple of broken windows?
I am not disparaging the protesters,
No, you're just implying they're not real protesters.
I am pointing out that some are committing crimes like breaking into buildings etc. How is that disparaging?
I notice you haven't said a thing about where the money is ACTUALLY going. You seem to care a damn sight more about charitable organizations and advocacy groups using meagre resources to support protesters than you do about
billions of taxpayer dollars going towards the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians. Nor do you care about these
very highly funded and influential universities attempting to suppress the protests and support Israel's actions. No. As far as your concerned, any of the vast quantities of money that goes towards Israel, or goes towards institutions that support Israel, is not worth remarking on. But, if little Sally has a bake-sale to raise money for a Palestinian kid who got his arm blown off, you cry "See! There's money involved! ASTRO-TURF! ASTRO-TURF!"
Stop pretending you care about this "follow the money" nonsense. You don't. You just want to disparage the protesters.
