As pro-Palestinian college protests continue nationwide, questions are being asked about the authenticity of the demonstrations—and who is funding them.

In the earliest days of the encampments, photos showing rows of identical tents quickly appeared online, prompting many observers to ask if some of the sit-ins were not orchestrated by students.

Indeed, according to NYPD statistics, almost half of those arrested at the height of the Columbia University and City College of New York protests were not students but outside agitators.

While stridently leftist outlets like The Washington Post have scoffed at the idea that these demonstrations are anything but grassroots, other legacy outlets have done some digging. What they’ve found is alarming, to say the least.

According to the New York Post, “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).”

The Post notes that USCPR pays its fellows, including current and former students at major universities, up to $3,660 “in return for spending eight hours a week organizing ‘campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.’”

At least $300,000 has made its way to USCPR from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017, and another $355,000 was donated by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019, according to the Post.

Politico unearthed similar funding streams in a bombshell article that is no doubt causing a major headache for the Biden campaign.

“Pro-Palestinian protesters are backed by a surprising source: Biden’s biggest donors,” reads the headline of the article, which has gone viral on all major social media platforms.

The Politico piece begins:

President Joe Biden has been dogged for months by pro-Palestinian protesters calling him ‘Genocide Joe’—but some of the groups behind the demonstrations receive financial backing from philanthropists pushing hard for his reelection.

The donors include some of the biggest names in Democratic circles: Soros, [David] Rockefeller and [Nick] Pritzker.

Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist organization, and IfNotNow are two of the organizing groups supporting the protests, says Politico—and both are supported by the Tides Foundation, which was seeded by George Soros and has previously enjoyed financial backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to Politico’s research, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has also given almost half a million dollars to Jewish Voice for Peace over the last five years.

However, for everyday Americans, there is a bigger story here that rises above shadowy political actors.

Cultural commentator Michael Young , who goes by the alias Wokal Distance, has published a fascinating thread on X explaining the inner workings of radical groups like those running these encampments on American university campuses.

“Want to know how Woke activists take over buildings, smash windows, trash university campuses, and still have the press call them ‘non-violent’?” he begins.

Young suggests that, far from being spontaneous, what Americans are witnessing across the nation is very well-planned organizing from highly-trained activists using calculated tactics to drum up support for their cause.

In short, the organizers aim to put their target in a “decision dilemma” by using a method of protest that leaves the target without any good options: “No matter how the target reacts they look bad.”

If university leadership and law enforcement let protesters take over and occupy entire buildings, as they have done on many campuses, the protesters gain the upper hand. However, if police engage, the protesters “play victim and use the optics to look like sympathetic martyrs for the cause,” even though they are the aggressors.

Putting sympathetic characters on the frontline and releasing footage to media outlets that presents protesters as victims and the targets as aggressors are all part of the strategy.

It’s straight out of the Saul Alinsky playbook. Alinsky remains one of the most influential authorities on the (largely left-wing) phenomenon known as “community organizing.” In his 1971 book Rules for Radicals, Alinsky outlined 13 rules that have served as a template for generations of activists.

“The real action is your target’s reaction” is a famous Alinsky tactic—and one that is self-evidently at play in the current college protests.

The takeaway for ordinary folks?

Wise up to the tactics of the organizers. Don’t take everything you see for granted. Keep asking questions about who is leading and funding the high-profile events being broadcast on the nightly news.

Like the Wizard of Oz or the Emperor’s New Clothes, the power of these protests is mostly in the illusion. Shrug that off, and we can get back to an authentically functioning republic—surely a non-negotiable for an election year.

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Image credit: Public domain