Billions of taxpayer dollars fund schools with anti-Israel protests

Billions of American taxpayer dollars have helped fund many of the colleges and universities where anti-Israel agitators recently have occupied campuses – a stunning sum that has led numerous politicians to call for an end to federal cash for schools that allow the encampments to persist.

More than $5 billion worth of taxpayer dollars were given to Ivy League schools through sponsorship, grants and contracts during fiscal year 2023 alone. Another $2.1 billion also made its way to other prominent schools that have had anti-Israel rallies of late.

The Ivy League schools – Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Cornell University – have been the scenes of some of the most high-profile anti-Israel unrest.

The tumult has led several Republican lawmakers in the Senate and the House to call for the removal of federal funding for schools that refuse to meaningfully address the situations transpiring on their respective campuses.

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More than $5 billion in taxpayer money went toward the federal funding of the eight Ivy League schools in fiscal year 2023, a Fox News Digital review of financial records determined.

That year, Harvard received approximately $676.1 million, Princeton received approximately $403 million, Yale received approximately $776.8 million, Columbia received approximately $1.2 billion, Penn received approximately $955.6 million, Brown received approximately $173.7 million, Dartmouth received approximately $133 million and Cornell received approximately $736.3 million.

The eight Ivy League schools – as well as Northwestern University and Stanford University – received "$33 billion [worth] of federal contracts and grants" since 2018, "averaging $6.6 billion annually," an Open the Books study from last year revealed.

The same 10 schools also "reaped another $12 billion in special tax treatment benefits on the growth of their massive endowment gains," according to the report, which was released in November.

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In addition to the Ivy League schools, several other colleges that have garnered attention for anti-Israel unrest – including UC Berkeley, New York University (NYU), UT Austin, and George Washington University (GWU) – also received millions in federal funding in fiscal year 2023.

UC Berkeley received more than $451.4 million, NYU received more than $805.5 million, UT Austin received roughly $645.6 million and GWU received more than $200 million.

Ever since Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of some 1,200 people, anti-Israel demonstrations and troubling incidents of unrest have occurred on college campuses around the country, ramping up to the encampments that began appearing in April.

A student-orchestrated encampment at Columbia University was set up on the main lawn last week. The students there, like students at many other schools, are calling on university officials to divest from Israel, among other demands.

Several students behind the encampment have been heard shouting anti-Israel and antisemitic chants. Some have even scuffled with police and been arrested. So far, little has been done by the university to quash the protest, even as legal experts insist the students taking part in anti-Israel protests at schools in different corners of the U.S. are breaking each school's code of conduct.

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Though Columbia's is perhaps the most prominent, other schools with encampments have also witnessed a spread in similar rhetoric and displays. Some began long before any tents were erected. For example, shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, Harvard students staged a march, held a "die in" and accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza.

Like Columbia and Harvard, similar protests have taken place at Princeton. Last week, dozens of demonstrators attempted to erect a tent encampment – only for university police to move in and make two arrests. Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest, a group involved in the unrest, lashed out on social media, labeling the school's police force as "pigs."

A similar encampment to the one erected at Columbia also took NYU by storm this past week. Tents with anarchist symbols and a sign attempting to connect Black Rock to "Israel Apartheid" were seen pitched along the sidewalk near the NYU building, as anti-Israel agitators banged pots and pans and picketed in a circle. Other signs at the NYU demonstration, captured in footage shared by FreedomNews.TV, read "Honor the Martyrs of Palestine" and "We are all SJP," a reference to the anti-Israel group known as "Students for Justice in Palestine."

Last week, amid protests on its campus, UT Austin placed an anti-Israel group on interim suspension following the arrest of several students.

Fox News' Michael Dorgan, Haley Chi-Sing, Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.