Most House Democrats have been reticent on the antisemitic protests and encampments roiling college graduations this month, while a handful have vocally defended or even celebrated the student protests as displays of protected free speech.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, said she was proud of her daughter, a Barnard College student who was suspended for participating in illegal protests and who was among 100 people arrested after demonstrations at Columbia University in April. Throughout the months of campus protests, members of the progressive “squad,” Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Cori Bush of Missouri have applauded “courageous” anti-Israel student protestors while condemning efforts by university administrators and police to dismantle the encampments.

A RealClearPolitics analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows one possible reason most Democrats are trying to avoid the campus fray: House Democrats’ reelection campaigns have accepted $6.5 million from three major political families, which have helped bankroll several student groups participating in the protests. The family members cut most of those checks over the last two years, although some of the donations to longstanding House members came over the last decade.

The names are well-known among Democratic funding circles: Soros, Rockefeller, and Pritzker. Yet before the anti-Jewish protests swept college campuses over the last few months, their financial ties to the student groups were not widely known. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a member of the same wealthy Pritzker family, is not among the donors.

Several investigative media reports over the last month have uncovered the extensive financial ties between these families and student groups involved in organizing anti-Israel protests and activism across the country predating the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel and in its aftermath and during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

The donors to student groups include George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist and Democratic campaign contributor who helms the Open Society Foundation and his family members; the Pritzkers, the owners of Hyatt Hotels Corporation; and members of the famed Rockefeller family, including relatives of the wealthy American Banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller. The donations have either gone directly to student groups involved in campus demonstrations or to umbrella foundations and organizations, which have, in turn, channeled the funds to the protestors.

The House Democratic Congressional Committee and the House Majority PAC, which was founded by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and is directly affiliated with the House Democratic leadership, collected most of those funds, nearly $5.5 million by those two Democratic campaign entities alone, FEC records show.

At the University of Texas in Austin, police uncovered a cache of disturbing material hidden among art supplies at a protest encampment. The documents celebrated the death of innocent Jews and the destruction of Israel, including a piece that praised “over 2,300 rockets launched last year” at Israeli settlements.

Another document rejected peace and a two-state solution, calling for the complete liberation of the land “from the river to the sea.” Additionally, materials sourced from the “Resistance News Network,” a radical antisemitic Telegram channel promoting Hamas, were found on campuses in Illinois, New York, and California.

The materials also contained messages from recognized terrorist groups such as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, threatening Israelis with violence. Experts have criticized the content as promoting extremism and the absolute elimination of Israel and Israelis through violence.

In addition to the propaganda, police found weapons, chains, and steel cables intended for barricading doors, and buckets of rocks and bricks to assault police. Of the 79 people arrested in connection with the UT protest, 45 had no affiliation with the university.

Similar situations have occurred at other campuses, with UC San Diego officials citing “significant dangers” in calling police to shut down an encampment where weapons, shields, and other tools for vandalism were found.

These incidents highlight a concerning trend of extremist and violent rhetoric and actions among some university protesters claiming to support Palestinian humanitarian rights.

Article generated from corporate media reports.

A new report from Politico Sunday revealed that donors like Bill Gates, George Soros, David Rockefeller Jr., and Nick Pritzker are supporting organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, which have been responsible for many of the protests at college campuses. These groups, according to the outlet, are funded by the Tides Foundation which is funded by Soros and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mega Democratic donors funding radical left causes though has been an obvious connection for many Republicans, who have repeatedly called out Soros and other donor ties for some time. In early April, the Daily Caller first obtained a copy of a letter from Republican New York Rep. Nick Langworthy to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which called on them to investigate Soros’ purchase of the nation’s second largest radio company, Audacy Inc. — another venture Soros has embarked on prior to the 2024 elections.

Since mid-April, pro-Palestine protests at U.S. college campuses have demanded that universities divest their funds from companies connected to Israel. While some may have had peaceful moments, many erupted into clashes between police and activists as they have violated schools’ policies by building encampments on campuses and vandalizing property.

Many Republicans since the beginning of the protests, which began at Columbia University, have called out Biden’s lack of leadership surrounding the issue. Nearly four days after the initial protests at Columbia, and nearly 100 arrests made at the time, Biden released a statement condemning the “harassment and calls for violence against Jews,” however, notably did not call out the school. (RELATED: Climate Activist And Liberal Billionaire Quietly Gobbles Up Rural Land)

While the shocking news is hitting Democrats, Politico’s piece was met with backlash, as users overwhelmingly agreed that the connection between the protests and far-left Democratic donors wasn’t surprising at all.

Not very surprising honestly

— Chad Gilmartin (@ChadGilmartinCA) May 5, 2024

It's crazy that pointing out these funders were behind things was a conspiracy theory just a few years ago. Now, Politico is reporting it.

— Rural Revolution (@pilgrimboy14) May 5, 2024

https://t.co/lcFwjW186t pic.twitter.com/9BGMhk6chM

— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) May 5, 2024

This is actually the least “surprising” thing I have heard all year. https://t.co/GLIBYsrqml

— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) May 5, 2024

pic.twitter.com/pJoMPZnnl2

— Joel Grus (@joelgrus) May 5, 2024

Wonder who is funding the campus protesters? It's exactly who you thought it was:

"The donors include some of the biggest names in Democratic circles: Gates, Soros, Rockefeller and Pritzker, according to a POLITICO analysis." https://t.co/8AEsVcoD8c

— Rep. Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) May 5, 2024

During an interview with Biden’s campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu, CNN host Jake Tapper pressed the Biden advisor on the connection between the donors and groups, asking if they should be funded.

“Politico has a story out this morning, noting that a lot of the multimillionaires and billionaires funding the most explicitly anti-Israel groups, ones that think Israel has no right to exist that are active on campuses, that these groups are funded by big Biden donors, the Pritzker’s, the Gates’, George Soros, David Rockefeller, Jr. Should they stop funding these groups? Are they causing unrest for the American people?” Tapper asked.

“Well, let me say this, I think that everybody, as the president has said, needs to kind of get focused in on the very core principles of what our Constitution allows and what our Constitution protects. And that is this, everybody has a right to protest, but they have to protest peacefully. If they’re protesting violently that has to end, there’s no place for that. There’s no place for anti-semitism. There’s no place for Islamophobia,” Landrieu responded.

During an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman questioned the protesters’ demands by pointing out that Hamas appeared to not be a hot topic for them. The Democratic senator echoed his statements online, quoting Politico’s piece and stating that the activists “should be demanding Hamas to release the hostages and surrender.”

Confirmed: the anti-Israel astroturfing of JVP/INN

Paid or not, protesters should be demanding Hamas to release the hostages and surrender. pic.twitter.com/DZJJPnr9Kf

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) May 5, 2024

Just four days ago, a Daily Beast report claimed that the connection between Soros and pro-Palestine protests on campus were the “target of right-wing conspiracy theories.” The article called out an interview from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on NewsNation, in which the lawmaker called for the FBI to be “all over” the protests, asking if they could have been funded by “George Soros or overseas entities.”

Another piece from a Washington Post columnist Phillip Bump, claimed that the idea of Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) helping fund protests across the country is “so tenuous as to be obviously contrived.”

The president’s position has been at odds with a key voting bloc for Democrats, as many young voters have been behind calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. While the issue is not fully attributed to Biden’s falling support with young Americans, it appears to be having an effect in Michigan, a state that voted for him in 2020 and flipped from its support of former President Donald Trump in 2016.

During the state’s primary this year, many Muslim Americans who once voted for Biden withheld their support due to the president’s position on the Israeli conflict. While Biden won the primary by 81.1%, an estimated 13.3% voted “uncommitted,” with protest voters claiming he is “funding war and genocide in Gaza.”

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The defendants, who filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents, argued that their suspension from ASU was causing “irreparable harm” by preventing them from enrolling in classes. They also claimed that the suspensions violated their First Amendment rights.

Approximately 72 individuals, including both students and faculty, were arrested on Apr. 26 and taken into custody for continuing protests on the ASU campus. The Old Main lawn area was cleared overnight by police officers.

Judge John Tuchi ruled that the students had not provided enough evidence to support their claims of First Amendment rights violations. He also found that there was insufficient evidence of “irreparable harm” caused by the university’s suspension of the students. The trespassing charges at the center of the lawsuit have not yet been addressed in court.

Since the arrests, students and faculty have been protesting to demand that the university drop all charges against the protesters.

In a similar situation, the University of Arizona is also dealing with protesters occupying parts of its campus. University president Robert C. Robbins announced on May 1 that he had directed officials, campus police, and local law enforcement to enforce campus use policies and laws “without further warning.”

State troopers were seen on campus with pepper ball guns and gas masks, and arrests began later despite an initial 10:30 p.m. deadline for protesters to leave.

Article generated from corporate media reports.

This principle–that our rights preexisted the government–would be played out over and over in litigation in the centuries following the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

The ratification itself was insisted upon by five of the new states who threatened to leave the new union unless restraints were added to the Constitution so as to protect the individual liberties that the Declaration of Independence–then only 15 years old–stated unambiguously were granted by the Creator.

Though the colonists deeply valued all the rights articulated in the Declaration, truly it was the freedom of speech that drove the revolution. Yes, the Americans had Kentucky long guns that enabled the colonial militias to shoot and kill British forces from distances that the British weaponry was unable to reach. Yes, the Americans were animated by defending their homeland.

But it was speech–sung in taverns, written in broadsides, delivered in sermons, distributed in pamphlets, adopted by the Continental Congress and colonial legislatures, and proclaimed in town squares from Boston to Charleston–that whipped the brushfires of freedom into a revolution and a new nation.

I offer this brief historical, philosophical and legal analysis of the freedom of speech as background for the discussion that follows.

Today, this most basic and utterly essential freedom–both a natural human right and a constitutionally protected right–is under assault by governments that hate or fear the content of the speech. I am addressing the demonstrations on college campuses today and the authoritarian responses to them by college presidents, governors and mayors.

Here is the dispute in a nutshell.

Students at various universities are repulsed by the gravity of the assault on Gaza by the IDF. They have chosen to address this assault and not the assault on Israeli civilians and military on Oct. 7. They are free to address whichever assault they choose.

They have also chosen to articulate their views by occupying public places on campuses; shouting, singing and haranguing college administrators. The administrators, fearing a loss of donations from those who disagree with the students or harm to other students who challenge the demonstrators, have engaged local and state police to suppress these demonstrations.

Can the government interfere with speech because of its content? In a word: No.

How about on private property where campuses are not owned by the government? That depends on the location of the campus, as most states–but not all–have public accommodation laws that make college campuses public places available for the articulation of ideas. Even the colleges in states without these laws that accept federal funds do so in contracts with the federal government, which require that they respect free-speech rights.

These public accommodation laws and these agreements with the feds are violative of the property rights of the owners of these colleges. Yet, like free speech, property rights, too, are under attack in America today.

Nevertheless, today it is clear beyond dispute that college campuses are places for the free exchange of ideas, whether these ideas are approved by the owners of the campuses or not.

Is speech that preaches hate and threatens violence protected on college campuses? In a word: Yes.

In Terminiello v. Chicago (1949), a Roman Catholic priest aimed hatred at President Harry Truman and the hate speech produced violence and property damage. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), a Ku Klux Klan leader aimed hatred at Blacks and Jews. In Terminiello, the violence was caused by the audience members who hated the speech they came to scorn. In Brandenburg, the KKK speaker demanded violence, but it never came about.

The Supreme Court sided with both speakers. The jurisprudence from both cases is now integral to American law. It teaches that all innocuous speech is absolutely protected and all speech is innocuous when there is time for more speech to challenge it.

Moreover, the court ruled, freedom of speech is so essential to human happiness and democratic values that it tolerates violence; meaning, those who cause violence can and should be addressed by the criminal justice system, but those who preach it are immune from prosecution, unless they cause an immediate, unthinking violent act–meaning there is no time for more speech to challenge the call for violence.

In the case of college campuses, the violence has been caused by the government. Whether the property on which the demonstrators stand is owned by the government–like the University of Texas, where the governor sent in police on horseback to rough up peaceful demonstrators–or is privately owned like Columbia University, where the mayor sent in police to arrest peaceful students, is of no moment.

No moment because the students have an absolute right to think as they wish, to say what they think, to read what they want, to publish what they believe; and they can do this alone or in groups, quietly or profoundly–and they can do this with impunity. Anything short of leaving them alone involves the governmental evaluation of the content of speech, the very acts that the First Amendment was written to prevent.

Today, the government wants war, and the students want peace. In the bitter days of the 1960s, student demonstrators chased an incumbent president from reelection and chastised a newly elected one into a policy change over war. Today, the government seems determined to use force to prevent change and suppress freedom. If the British had done this successfully in the 1770s, we’d all be bowing to Charles III today.

To learn more about Judge Andrew Napolitano, visit https://JudgeNap.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

COPYRIGHT 2024 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM.

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Police have made more than 1,600 arrests in connection with the disruptive, illegal campus occupations since the first one began April 19 at Columbia University, according to an investigation by The Washington Stand. [The Associated Press on Thursday put the number of related arrests at over 2,000.}

Disturbingly, some universities are beginning to cave to protesters’ demands to restore order, even as campus protests become increasingly dominated by people who aren’t students.

The sheer number of anti-Israel campus protests and arrests makes it a bit bewildering to keep track of them all. As of Wednesday, there were at least 1,641 arrests and counting at 33 colleges and universities in 23 states, with at least three more schools threatening to make arrests and more pro-Hamas encampments cropping up daily.

Since so much media coverage obscures this point, it bears repeating that universities have not called in police to arrest protesters simply for exercising their right to free speech, or even for the vile, antisemitic content of that speech.

After asking law enforcement to intervene on two separate occasions, the University of Texas at Austin on Monday issued this representative statement: “Protests are allowed at the University of Texas. Since October and prior to April 24, no fewer than 13 pro-Palestinian free speech events were held on the UT campus, and four more demonstrations have been held since Thursday, largely without incident.”

No, protesters were arrested for deliberately breaking the rules: flouting curfews, setting up tents where no tents were allowed, intimidating other students and impeding their free access and education on campus, and defying orders from law enforcement.

In some instances, protesters broke into campus buildings and barricaded them against campus authorities, declaring that the buildings had been “liberated.” Thus, when protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest, they had no one to blame but themselves.

If anything, universities have been reluctant to arrest demonstrators, often waiting days before calling in police. Schools repeatedly pleaded with the lawless mob before authorizing arrests, and then only a fraction of those involved in the illegal encampments are arrested.

Thus, the 40 incidents in which campus demonstrators have been arrested represent only a small fraction of antisemitic activity on college campuses that has been met by a law enforcement response. With that said, here is a timeline of campus arrests since April 19:

Friday, April 19:

• A total of 108 activists were arrested at Columbia University after erecting a pre-dawn tent encampment. Several students were suspended. Several student organizers were briefly suspended, including the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. However, the encampment returned April 21.

Monday, April 22:

• A total of 133 activists were arrested at New York University after a large group, including non-students, illegally crossed police barricades.
• A total of 48 activists were arrested at Yale University, where pro-Hamas demonstrators intimidated Jewish students and struck one in the eye. The activists resisted a lawful order to disperse.
• Three activists were arrested at California State Polytechnic University at Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt) in a scuffle with police after protesters illegally occupied an academic building and barricaded it against police.

Tuesday, April 23:

• Nine activists were arrested at the University of Minnesota when police cleared another encampment at the Minneapolis campus.
• Two activists were arrested at the University of South Carolina for creating a disturbance after hours and then refusing a lawful order to disperse.

Wednesday, April 24:

• A total of 93 activists were arrested at the University of Southern California as police cleared an encampment. Activists, including many who weren’t students, struggled against police. At one point they surrounded a police vehicle until police let someone they had arrested go free.
• A total of 57 activists were arrested at the University of Texas at Austin after they refused to disperse and attempted to unlawfully erect an encampment. Nearly half (26) of those arrested were not affiliated with the university. The progressive local prosecutor subsequently dropped all charges against those arrested.

Thursday, April 25:

• Police arrested 108 activists at Emerson College in Boston when officers cleared an illegal encampment.
• Officers arrested 36 activists at Ohio State University when police cleared an illegal encampment. Only 16 were students; 20 were not affiliated with the university.
• Police arrested 33 activists at Indiana University at Bloomington when officers cleared an illegal encampment.
• A total of 28 activists were arrested at Emory University in Atlanta when police cleared an illegal encampment.
• Two activists were arrested at Princeton University when police arrived to clear an illegal encampment. After officers began making arrests, the rest of the occupiers voluntarily packed up their tents to avoid arrest.
• One activist, a grad student, was arrested at the University of Connecticut for assaulting an officer who was attempting to detain another student.

Friday, April 26:

• Police arrested 44 activists at the Auraria Higher Education Center, where they had illegally occupied campus buildings and damaged campus property. Auraria serves as a campus for the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the University of Colorado Denver.
• Three activists were arrested at Arizona State University in connection with an illegal encampment that would not be cleared until the next day.
• Two activists were arrested at the University of Illinois when police cleared an illegal encampment. The two men, not students, were charged with “mob action.” One also was charged with obstructing a peace officer and the other with aggravated battery of a peace officer.

Saturday, April 27:

• 100 activists were arrested at the University of Washington, St. Louis when police cleared an illegal encampment. (This number seems suspiciously round, but efforts to obtain a more precise total bore no fruit; therefore, I will proceed as if this was the total.) Among those arrested were 23 students and four school employees, leaving approximately 73 not affiliated with the school. Jill Stein, the 2024 presidential candidate for the Green Party, was one of those arrested.
• 98 activists were arrested at Northeastern University in Boston at a demonstration that evidently crossed some lines. The demonstration was “infiltrated by professional organizers,” according to a school spokeswoman, which led the school to shut it down. Anyone who could produce a valid school ID card was not arrested. Among the 98 protesters who could not, 29 were students and six were school employees, leaving 63 not affiliated with the school.
• 69 activists were arrested at Arizona State University when police cleared an illegal encampment. Of the total of 72 arrested at ASU between Friday and Saturday, only 15 were students; 57 were unaffiliated with the school.
• 12 activists were arrested at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, when police cleared an illegal encampment and they refused to leave. The university expressed safety concerns over unaffiliated individuals joining the demonstration. Of those arrested, nine were students and three were unaffiliated with the school.

Sunday, April 28:

• Two activists were arrested at the University of Pittsburgh for illegally trespassing on a lawn.

Monday, April 29:

• 82 activists were arrested at Virginia Tech University after students illegally occupied a lawn. Fifty-three were students, leaving 29 who were not affiliated with the school.
• 79 activists were arrested at the University of Texas at Austin after they again attempted to erect an illegal encampment. Only 34 were students while 45 were not affiliated with the school.
• 20 activists were arrested at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland after students illegally erected tents during a protest.
• 19 activists were arrested at the University of Utah when police cleared an illegal encampment. Those arrested included four students, one school employee, and 14 unaffiliated individuals.
• 16 activists were arrested at the University of Georgia when police cleared an illegal encampment, . including 11 students and five unaffiliated individuals. The university subsequently suspended some of those arrested. “Personally, I did not expect to be suspended,” complained one suspended student, Zeena Mohamed. But college is supposed to be a place where students learn new things, after all.
• 13 activists were arrested at Princeton after protesters illegally occupied a campus building.
• 13 activists were arrested at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond when police cleared an illegal encampment. Six were students and seven were not affiliated with the school.
• Six students were arrested at Tulane University in connection with an illegal encampment. Only one was a student; the other five were not affiliated with the university.
• Three activists were arrested at the University of South Florida when the Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society held an unauthorized rally. The school’s SDS chapter had been suspended for causing a disruption on campus at a previous event.

Tuesday, April 30:

• 173 activists were arrested at the City College in New York (CCNY) when police were called because of “specific and repeated acts of violence and vandalism.” Both students and “unaffiliated external individuals” refused to leave. The New York Police Department cleared CCNY around the same time that they cleared protesters at Columbia University for the second time.
• 119 activists were arrested at Columbia University. Activists had illegally occupied the campus for more than a week, causing it to be closed. They recently broke into and barricaded a campus building, which they renamed and declared “liberated.” Police used a large truck to enter the building through a second-floor window.
• 36 activists were arrested at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after they refused to obey a lawful order to disperse. Demonstrators had taken down an American flag and replaced it with a Palestinian flag. Of those arrested, 13 were students and 23 were not affiliated with the university.
• 32 activists were arrested at Cal Poly Humboldt after they illegally occupied a campus building for more than a week. Those arrested included 13 students, one faculty member, and 18 unaffiliated individuals.
• 25 activists were arrested at the University of Connecticut when police cleared an illegal encampment.
• 16 activists were arrested at the University of New Mexico after they illegally occupied a campus building. Five of those arrested were students and 11 were not affiliated with the university.
• 14 activists were arrested at Tulane University when police cleared an illegal encampment. Two were students and 12 were not affiliated with the university.
• 10 activists were arrested at the University of South Florida after the SDS, the suspended student group, tried to stage another illegal encampment. Seventy-five to 100 protesters came equipped with wooden shields and umbrellas in an attempt to counter law enforcement’s anti-riot tactics, but they were ultimately unsuccessful.
• Nine activists were arrested at the University of Florida when police cleared an illegal encampment. One was charged with battery of a police officer.

Wednesday, May 1:

• 34 activists were arrested at the University of Wisconsin at Madison when police cleared an illegal encampment. Four were charged with resisting arrest and/or battery of a police officer.
• Activists were arrested overnight at the University of Arizona when police cleared an illegal encampment. At publishing time, it was not known how many activists were arrested. [Later reports said police made four arrests.]

There are several noteworthy trends in this progression: 1) universities are acting more quickly to disperse illegal encampments; 2) more universities are calling in police to make arrests; 3) the numbers of those arrested is dwindling; and 4) increasing attention is being drawn to the presence of outside agitators.

These trends suggest several developments. First, university administrators are watching what is happening at other universities. They are witnessing the recalcitrance of pro-Hamas activists, as well as the headaches and monetary damages they have caused at places like Columbia or Cal Poly Humboldt where they were not dealt with quickly.

Administrators also have witnessed the example of the University of Texas at Austin and other schools that have successfully prevented a campus occupation through vigilant policing. These factors motivate university administrators to put an end to protesters’ illegal occupation tactics.

Second, the force of the pro-Hamas wave has dwindled as it has expanded. Protests at elite, radically progressive schools had high energy and significant student involvement. But protests at smaller or less elite schools have seen less student enthusiasm. Arrests have been in higher numbers, and there has been a larger proportion of unaffiliated agitators.

Third, even the most radical protesters can behave rationally. Essentially, they would rather not face consequences for their actions—to the point that they are now begging for amnesty from the same administrators they just poked in the eye. It seems that students are making a risk calculation based upon how they believe law enforcement will respond.

Police have made the most arrests in progressive (that is, anti-law-enforcement) jurisdictions such as New York, Massachusetts, and California. But protests have been smaller across the South and Midwest, suggesting that fewer students are willing to risk arrest and prosecution for the thrill of camping on the university lawn. This also suggests that government officials should consider the incentives they create in how they respond to protests.

Fourth, outside agitators have become involved to an alarming extent. Police made arrests at 22 universities from Saturday to Tuesday; in 11 out of 12 instances where the numbers are known, they arrested more outsiders than students. In multiple instances, these outside agitators participated in illegally occupying campus buildings.

It is unacceptable that a handful of activists, with no connection to a university, can seize its property and hold it hostage to absurd demands.

Circumstances on many university campuses are developing rapidly, and more arrests could follow at any time. Johns Hopkins University has threatened police action against an illegal encampment on its Baltimore campus. Purdue University has threatened ringleaders of an encampment there with disciplinary action. Portland State University in Oregon has closed its campus due to protesters illegally occupying the campus library for two straight days.

As these will not be the last campus arrests related to pro-Hamas protests, neither were they the first. At Brown University, 41 students were arrested in December when they refused to leave a campus building. In March, four students at Vanderbilt University and 22 students and two faculty members at Cornell University were arrested for refusing to leave campus buildings.

The pro-Hamas, antisemitic protests on campus exploded in mid-April, around the Jewish holiday of Passover. The illegal occupation at Columbia gained the most attention, and campus occupations have expanded ever since.

But the activists have gone too far. Universities are fighting back with mass arrests.

The Biden Administration had ignored this campus chaos for nine days – until finally being politically forced to respond. Biden rightly emphasized that “violent protest is not protected – peaceful protest is.”

Unfortunately, he later wrongly identified the cause of the campus chaos: “There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.”

Are you kidding? Extreme far-Left radicals who are wreaking havoc. NYC Mayor Eric Adams claims that a high number of the protesters are not even students – they are outside agitators.

The Biden Administration is worried about losing the radical faction of their base – that’s why the President felt compelled to lump Jewish students in with Muslim students.

Yet these pro-Hamas rioters on college campuses hate Jews, hate Israel, and have chosen the violent events of October 7 as the jumping-off point to go to the streets. They are celebrating Hamas’ carnage against innocent women and children. Nothing even remotely similar is happening to Muslim students on college campuses in America.

The ACLJ fights daily for the free speech of all Americans. It’s a fundamental constitutional right that must be preserved. However, when you are spewing death threats and committing violence against Jewish students and supporters of Israel, a clear line has been crossed. When hundreds are being arrested, you don’t have a peaceful protest that’s protected by the Constitution.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of President Biden’s politically motivated press conference about the pro-Hamas protesters.

As you will see below, these protests are being organized by paid professional agitators, and they are being funded by the same far left sources that have funded other radical protest movements in the past.

But don’t just take my word for it.  New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a far left mayor in a far left city, and even he is admitting that there were “professionals” involved in the chaos that we just witnessed at Columbia University…

“There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training,” Adams said.

“I know that there are those who attempting to say, ‘Well, the majority of people may have been students.’ You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this about.

“This is a global problem that young people are being influenced by those who are professionals at radicalizing our children and I’m not going to allow that to happen as the mayor of the city of New York.”

Mayor Adams says that Lisa Fithian, who is considered to be “the nation’s best-known protest consultant”, was directly involved with what was going on at Columbia…

A video shown by the mayor shows Lisa Fithian, an infamous agitator at US protests for over half a century, showing protesters how to occupy a building.

Adams called Fithian ‘the nation’s best-known protest consultant’, noting she gets paid as much as $300 a day to run demonstrations and teach how to take over streets during protests.

In addition, it is being reported that three groups that are heavily funded by George Soros “set up the tent city on Columbia’s lawn”…

The cash from Soros and his acolytes has been critical to the Columbia protests that set off the national copycat demonstrations.

Three groups set up the tent city on Columbia’s lawn last Wednesday: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Within Our Lifetime.

At the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” students sleep in tents apparently ordered from Amazon and enjoy delivery pizza, coffee from Dunkin’, free sandwiches worth $12.50 from Pret a Manger, organic tortilla chips and $10 rotisserie chickens.

An analysis by The Post shows that all three got cash from groups linked to Soros. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund also gave cash to JVP.

This wasn’t just a group of college students that suddenly decided to get radical.

This was an operation that was well planned and well funded. And the SJP has had a hand in initiating similar operations at other colleges and universities all over the United States…

Copycat tent cities have been set up at colleges including Harvard, Yale, Berkeley in California, the Ohio State University and Emory in Georgia — all of them organized by branches of the Soros-funded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — and at some, students have clashed with police.

The SJP parent organization has been funded by a network of nonprofits ultimately funded by, among others, Soros, the billionaire left-wing investor.

At three colleges, the protests are being encouraged by paid radicals who are “fellows” of a Soros-funded group called the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).

An organization known as “The People’s Forum” was also very heavily involved in the chaos that erupted at Columbia.

In fact, the Manhattan headquarters of the group appears to have been a primary base of operations for the protesters…

The People’s Forum, a tax-exempt advocacy group who often hosts propaganda events for the regimes of countries like Venezuela and Cuba, has been accused of being behind the Columbia protests.

The Washington Free Beacon reports the group, which has received $12 million from Goldman Sachs, may have provided materials for the so-called occupation of Hamilton Hall.

Over 100 masked activists met at the group’s Manhattan headquarters, a base for all kinds of leftist activism, to plan their moves on Monday, participating in breakout sessions that taught ‘resistance’ methods.

Last year, the New York Times reported that “The People’s Forum” has received funding from the Chinese Community Party.

Needless to say, that is a very alarming connection.

For now, the protest at Columbia has been crushed, but we continue to see chaos at colleges and universities all over the country.  Here are some of the highlights…

• Violent clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters erupted Tuesday night at the University of California, Los Angeles, leading school officials to cancel classes on Wednesday.
• Protesters entered an undergraduate admissions building at Emory University on Wednesday.
• New York police arrested protesters who were occupying the lobby of a building at Fordham University Wednesday afternoon. They also cleared away a tent encampment.
• Students at Portland State University continued to barricade themselves inside the school’s library, escalating a two-day standoff with officials, who canceled classes Wednesday.

The violence at UCLA is particularly disturbing.

Last night, a number of individuals were seriously hurt, and one person actually had to be sent to the hospital…

The clashes at UCLA took place around a tent encampment built by pro-Palestinian protesters, who erected barricades and plywood for protection — while counter-protesters tried to pull them down. Video showed fireworks exploding over and in the encampment. People threw chairs and at one point a group piled on a person who lay on the ground, kicking and beating them with sticks until others pulled them out of the scrum.

A UCLA spokesperson on Wednesday said there were “a reported 15 injuries, including one hospitalization.”

It appears that the person that was hospitalized was a Jewish girl that was “surrounded by five people wearing keffiyehs and bludgeoned in the head while they stomped on her Israeli flag”…

According to That Korean Jew on Instagram the girl was surrounded by five people wearing keffiyehs and bludgeoned in the head while they stomped on her Israeli flag.

The girl reportedly lost consciousness and her body went limp. She was carried away and sent to the Emergency Room.

This actually happened at UCLA in 2024.

What in the world is happening to our country?

You can view some footage of the violence at UCLA right here…

At UCLA, the protesters are not just “occupying” one particular area.

Zero Hedge is reporting that radicals have actually put up barriers all around the campus and are keeping out any students that do not agree with the protests…

It’s like the Seattle CHAZ encampment all over again.  Far-left activists have declared the UCLA campus a “liberated zone” and are refusing entry for many students not affiliated with the pro-Gaza protests.  They have erected barriers and placed guards, creating makeshift checkpoints which require a special wrist band in order to gain passage.

In other words, if you aren’t an “ally” then you don’t get to attend classes, or, if you’re lucky you are allowed to take a longer route around the barricades.  Keep in mind, this is not a protected form of protest or free speech, which explains why many college campuses have chosen to have protesters removed by police.  UCLA so far appears to be supporting the activists and has allowed them to take control.

This is complete and utter lawlessness.

And if they get away with it there, paid agitators will try the same thing at other colleges and universities.

Of course these far left radicals at UCLA need to eat just like the rest of us, and they are specifically asking people to bring them “vegan and gluten-free food”…

The pro-Palestine encampment at UCLA sent out demands for vegan and gluten-free food as they rebuild their barricades after a night of violent clashes with counter-protesters and authorities.

The list of requested items, first reported by Fox News, included ‘urgent’ demands for ‘wood for barrier’, ‘knee and elbow pads’ and ‘gas masks.’

Under a list of food requirements to be delivered to the camp the protesters requested ‘vegan food’, ‘gluten free food’ and ‘hot food for lunch’.

A list of banned foods include anything packaged, coffee, bagels, bananas and nuts.

Colleges and universities are perfect locations for far left protests, because there are lots of wide open public spaces and there are lots of deeply confused young people that are sympathetic to leftist causes.

So I fully expect that colleges and universities will continue to be targeted by professional agitators and the organizations that fund them during this election season and the chaos that will extend into 2025 and beyond.

One of the primary goals of these protests is to get attention, and the mainstream media has been giving them plenty of it.

Unfortunately, I believe that this is just the beginning.

I am entirely convinced that global events will soon spiral completely out of control, and that will provide plenty of fuel for more nationwide protests.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

They have learned how to game the system just like hordes of other illegal immigrants have.  We are literally committing national suicide, but as long as Joe Biden is in the White House our borders are going to continue to be wide open.

On Wednesday, pro-Hamas protesters blocked access to the largest airports in New York City and Los Angeles on “one of the busiest travel days of the year”…

Police arrested pro-Palestinian protesters that blocked entry to New York City’s John F. Kennedy airport and the Los Angeles International Airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

Travelers were forced to get out of their cars and walk to the airport with their luggage in New York after activist demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war blocked the road leading to one of the country’s biggest and busiest airports on Wednesday.

Port Authority Police Department were notified of the protest activity on the Van Wyck Expressway inside JFK airport around 11:30 a.m.

At one point the protesters on the Van Wyck Expressway were heard chanting “from the sea to the river”, which is essentially a call for genocide.

BREAKING
PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTERS
blocked the entrance to New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport is on one of the busiest travel days of the year. pic.twitter.com/CIX7rC5Kkf

— Fawad Rehman (@fawadrehman) December 27, 2023

In Los Angeles, things were even more chaotic. If you can believe it, protesters were actually trying to block the road to the airport “with cement blocks and other objects”…

The protest took a turn when the Los Angeles Police Department got involved around 9:30 a.m. when the group attempted to block the roadway with cement blocks and other objects. As officers moved in, the protesters took off running in different directions, while others were taken into custody.

Around noon, officials said an estimated 35 protesters were arrested.

This sort of chaos should not be happening at a major U.S. airport, but it is happening.

#BREAKING: LAPD are in Riot Gear as Pro-Palestine Protesters has blocked the entrance to the LAX Airport armed with Rocks and Throwing Cones and Construction Equipment
⁰#LosAngeles l #California ⁰⁰Currently Numerous law enforcement other agencies are currently on the… pic.twitter.com/zdEs2C1nXb

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) December 27, 2023

Sadly, this sort of chaos is starting to become quite common.

On Christmas Day, hundreds of radicals marched through Manhattan chanting “Christmas is canceled here”…

A pro-Palestinian demonstration on Christmas Day led to several arrests.

Six people were arrested as part of a protest of hundreds marching through Midtown chanting “Christmas is canceled here.”

Police say some of the protesters clashed with officers near Grand Central Terminal and Union Square, leading to six arrests for menacing officer, graffiti and disorderly conduct.

And earlier this month a large group of radicals actually stormed the Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill…

A protest for a cease-fire in Gaza led to over 40 arrests at the Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill Monday, according to Fox 5 Washington D.C.

The pro-Palestinian protesters were demanding a cease-fire in Gaza while illegally demonstrating inside the Congressional space, according to authorities.

Just after 10 a.m., a Capitol spokesperson told Fox 5 that the demonstrators arrived, with one man even climbing a statue in the atrium, before being charged with resisting arrest.

I could go on and on, but I think that you get the point.

Over the past few months, there have been endless examples of pro-Palestinian extremists causing trouble.

But this is just the beginning.

Thanks to the very foolish policies of our leaders, there are now 49.5 million people living in this country that were not born here…

Nearly 50 million people living in the US were born in another country according to a shocking new report.

A new study by the Center for Immigration Studies found 49.5 million people — around 15% of the 330 million US population — were originally born in another country.

The report also states this percentage, the highest ever recorded since the nation’s founding, has increased during Biden’s presidency, which it attributes to migrants flooding into the country during the current border crisis.

If people come here legally and want to abide by our laws and integrate into our society, I have no problem with that.

Unfortunately, there are millions upon millions of immigrants that have come here that have no intention of following our laws or integrating into our society. Instead, they intend to change our society.

I wanted to know how many Muslims currently live in the United States, and so I asked Google. Google told me that there are 3.45 million Muslims in the United States, but that number is from 2017. So how large has that number become now? Is it five million? Is it even higher?

It is undeniable that radical Islam is rapidly growing in this country.  Earlier today, I was absolutely horrified to learn that a new poll has found that three out of ten Gen Z voters in the U.S. actually believe that Osama Bin Laden’s views were a “force for good”…

One in five young Americans has a positive view of 9/11 mastermind and Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden, according to disturbing results of a DailyMail.com poll.

The alarming survey also found three in 10 Gen Z voters believe the views of the anti-Semitic terrorist leader who slaughtered thousands of innocent people were a ‘force for good’.

Are you kidding me? We are in so much trouble.

Bin Laden and others like him believe in global jihad.

They believe that Islam should conquer the entire world and that anyone that refuses to submit to their religion should be wiped out.

In nation after nation, Islamic extremists have become more and more demanding as their numbers have grown. We have seen this happen all over Europe, and now it is happening here.

These extremists bring violence with them wherever they go, and they are going to play a major role in the tremendous societal chaos that is ahead of us.

Sadly, very few are sounding the alarm, and our politicians continue to allow more radicals to pour into this country with each passing day.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

This is where discernment and prayerful reckoning must come into play. The tyranny du jour that’s rising around us is medical in nature as Pandemic Panic Theater 2.0 ramps up, just as many of us have been predicting for a while. The good news is we’re already seeing many patriots and skeptics ringing the alarm bells about the “election variants” of Covid-19 that are magically popping up ahead of 2024. The bad news is the vast majority of “normies” are getting gaslit by corporate media propaganda fearmongering.

Part of me thinks the powers-that-be must have something bigger cooked up. Are they going to simply rely on a rinse-and-repeat version of 2020 knowing the pushback will be much more fierce this time? Am I overestimating this “massive” pushback from the people? It’s easy to complain on social media but harder to apply when real lockdowns, mask mandates, and new “vaccines” and “boosters” hit the shelf.

I struggled with putting my thoughts together for this column because it seems we’re facing the overestimate-vs-underestimate conundrum. If we get as many people as possible prepared to ignore and protest the coming lockdowns, what happens if the calculus changes? For example, what if they roll out a variant that’s actually worthy of concern? Do we risk losing credibility and possibly costing lives by telling people to ignore the lockdowns, only to find out that they’ve unleashed an actual killer coronavirus?

Fear cannot drive us. I can second guess everything and paralyze myself thinking the adversaries are too smart, but that means inaction. Therefore, if I’m going to err then it’ll be on the side of freedom. Could they be planning something bigger than Covid-19 for us? Absolutely. But if we make plans to play it safe then we might as well sign over all of our rights immediately. Therefore, we must move forward with the working theory that they’re just going to try to play us for fools again with gaslighting and propaganda instead of unleashing an actual deadly disease.

In short, I’m not going to overthink it. Liars are going to lie so let’s move forward assuming Pandemic Panic Theater 2.0 will be nothing more than Kabuki.

What does that really mean from a practical perspective? It means we need to get organized at the local level. There isn’t a legitimate way to fight what’s coming on the national level. As for the states, we need to push red state legislators to fight all mandates and we need to assume all blue states will fall in line giddily with renewed medical tyranny. But at the local level, we can make a direct impact on our own lives, the lives of our families, and the communities around us.

Many cities and counties have groups that are (or at least were) already organized to push back against lockdowns. If they’re still active, we need to join them and help to advance them. If they’re inactive, we need to activate them. If you can’t find an appropriate one in your area, consider getting with peers and launching anew. I met one of my sponsors, “Our Gold Guy” Ira Bershatsky, because of his involvement with a group fighting medical tyranny in a Southern California city. They met every Sunday in a park with guest speakers and calls to action. It’s time for such groups to become active again.

It’s also time to talk to friends and family about this. Credibility comes with being right, so telling your “normie” relationships that lockdowns are coming back to establish control factors ahead of the election might cause some of them to roll their eyes today, but they’ll be more inclined to listen to you once it comes to pass. It makes sense to discuss it now so that when it happens we can be a knowledgeable guide to tell the “normies” how to properly respond.

The rise of medical tyranny must be met with far more pushback than we offered in 2020. Fear prevented freedom from winning back then. It cannot be allowed to do the same in 2023 and beyond.

Sound off about this on my Substack.