Hawley presses Garland to probe dark money’s role in fueling anti-Israel agitators on campus

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is demanding answers from Attorney General Merrick Garland about which left-wing groups are funding anti-Israel demonstrations causing “chaos” across campuses nationwide.

“Across the country, campuses are in chaos. It is time for you to open an investigation into the reason why, and who’s funding it,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Garland on Tuesday.

“In university after university, antisemitic radicals have taken over entire buildings and large tracts of outdoor space. They are vandalizing property, blocking students from moving around their own campuses, and terrorizing Jewish students. All the while, many administrators have failed to take action to promote safety on campus,” he wrote. 

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Sen. Josh Hawley, left, and Attorney General Merrick Garland. (Getty Images)

Last month, Fox News Digital reported that progressive anti-Israel agitators across the country, including those who mobilized at New York City’s Columbia University, are associated with groups tied to far-left groups with radical associations backed by dark money and liberal mega-donor George Soros.

National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), a national organization affiliated with more than 300 independent chapters advocating for “Palestinian liberation,” operates under Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation, a fiscal sponsor, whom Fox News Digital previously reported received a six-figure donation from a nonprofit bankrolled by the George Soros network.

The foundation, whose funding is largely unknown, has accused the Israeli government of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “collective punishment” and “war crimes,” according to NGO Monitor.

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Hundreds of students protest outside the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles on Wednesday May 1, 2024.  (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)

“Crucially, this is not just spontaneous student unrest. It is coordinated and funded by a powerful network of anti-Israel advocates,” Hawley wrote. “This pattern is disturbing. It is also almost certainly illegal.”

The Internal Revenue Service deems that any “organization formed to promote world peace that planned and sponsored protest demonstrations at which members were urged to commit acts of civil disobedience” doesn’t qualify for tax-exemption status. 

As such, Hawley wrote, “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.”

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Anti-Israel protesters gather in Washington Square Park in New York City on Friday, May 3, 2024. NYU’s Palestine Solidarity Coalition is hosting the demonstration as campus protests continue to sweep the country. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

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Another group active at Columbia, Jewish Voice for Peace, has brought in at least $650,000 from Soros-linked groups since 2016.

JVP has also taken in hundreds of thousands from the billionaire-fueled Rockefeller Fund, which is boosted by millions of dollars from adark money funding network.

“The Open Society Foundations has a long history of fighting antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism and hate,” a spokesperson for George Soros’ Open Society Foundations previously told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Garland’s office for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.