Don’t be surprised if the “it’s all Soros” trope quickly picks up among others on the right. Conservative leaders like House Speaker Mike Johnson have flown up to Columbia University to stoke the flames of an otherwise peaceful encampment of students who pay more than $68,000 per year in tuition to utilize the grounds, warning individuals practicing their First Amendment rights that he may call upon the National Guard to break them up. That violent call came after the university’s president, Minouche Shafik, authorized the New York City Police Department to sweep and arrest protesting students on school grounds, and after the school’s sister institution Barnard suspended and evicted at least 53 students participating in the encampment.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 Palestinians injured in the conflict, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel has advanced its attacks on the beleaguered nation by engaging in what the U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Turk has described as war crimes, including blocking humanitarian aid from reaching those who need it. Israel has also utilized mass starvation, as well as blocking or destroying access to critical resources such as water, food, fuel, electricity, and medical aid.
“Open Society has funded a broad spectrum of US groups that have advocated for the rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel and the OPT,” the group said in a statement provided to the Post. “The Open Society Foundations proudly support the right of all citizens to peaceful protest—a bedrock principle of our democracy.”