Ex-Israeli ambassador to US calls for FBI probe of pro-Hamas campus protests

Michael Oren calls on FBI to investigate funding of anti-Israel college protests, amid claims Qatar and George Soros have orchestrated the mass demonstrations.

By World Israel News Staff

A former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and ex-Knesset Member has called on the FBI to probe the ongoing pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses across the U.S., amid claims that Qatar and George Soros are bankrolling the protests.

Michael Oren, a New York-born historian tapped to serve as Israel’s top envoy to the U.S. in 2009 before entering politics and serving in the Knesset with the centrist Kulanu faction, spoke with The Media Line in an article published Thursday regarding the origins of the nascent pro-Hamas demonstrations at his alma mater, Columbia University.

While campus demonstrations against Israel and in favor of Hamas have been held since the October 7th invasion of Israel, on April 17th, militant anti-Israel activists established the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the Columbia University campus, demanding the school divest from Israel.

The rise of support for the Hamas terror organization on college campuses has highlight the financial links between American institutions of higher learning and Qatar, the oil-rich Arab Gulf state which currently hosts much of Hamas’ leadership in exile and which has served as the primary patron of the terror group for years.

According to a 2022 report by the Network Contagion Research Institute, Qatar – a small, sparsely populated state with just over 300,000 citizens – is the most prolific foreign donor to American universities, funding them to the tune of $4.7 billion from 2001 to 2021.

“We are being occupied by radical Islamist theology that has been imported from the Middle East to the tune of billions of dollars from Qatar, Brooke Goldstein, executive director of The Lawfare Project, told Fox News Wednesday.

“How is this happening and how is it that they are so coordinated? They’re all chanting the same slogans. Who is paying for the buses? Who is paying for the private planes that are bringing in the outside agitators?”

The campus protests have brought together a plethora of far-left groups, some of which have enjoyed financial backing from prominent mega-donors including billionaire financier George Soros, whose Open Society Network has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the radical anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace.

In his interview with The Media Line, Oren castigated the campus protests as “intolerable, unacceptable, and exceedingly dangerous,” accusing left-wing campus groups of working as “Trojan horses for antisemitism.”

Noting reports of financial ties between the anti-Israel campus protests and donors including Qatar and far-left organizations, Oren urged the FBI to investigate the origins of the demonstrations.

“These demonstrations are orchestrated and funded from outside. These aren’t spontaneous demonstrations.”

Rejecting claims that the protests are protected free speech, Oren said incitement to violence and support of terrorism “is illegal in America.”

“These people need to be prosecuted, but in the end, this isn’t a job for local police.”

American college campusesanti-Israel protestsFBIMichael Oren