(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker dismissed a report his family is indirectly funding pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel groups that have set up encampments on campuses across the nation.
At an unrelated news conference Tuesday in Springfield, Pritzker was asked about a recent Politico report that details his family’s financial contributions, through the Libra Foundation, to groups that have set up encampments on college campuses around the country.
“That’s a completely false story,” Pritzker said. “I think you should go read the Rolling Stone story that came out after it, which debunks all of it.”
The Libra Foundation is a Pritzker-family charitable organization that shares grantees on their website. The Libra Foundation board is made up of only Pritzkers.
In the Rolling Stone story mentioned by the governor, it says “The Libra Foundation discloses where its Tides Foundation donations go, and none of them went to the Adalah Justice Project,” a pro-Palestinian organization.
The Rolling Stone article does not dismiss the fact that Susan Pritzker also serves on the Solidare Network board as treasurer. Solidare Network, on their website, displays the Adalah Justice Project as a “movement partner.”
Solidaire’s Unity and Power Fund moves money to the front lines of antiwar and racial justice organizing, according to the network’s website.
The Pritzker-backed Tides Foundation is “fiscally-supporting” the Adalah Justice Project, according to the Tides Foundation’s website. In a social media post, the project shared a video of children, approximately ages 4-7, holding a banner that reads “Free Palestine.”
“Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Zionism has got to go,” shouted young children in a video on the project’s Instagram page.
Adalah Justice Project, according to its mission statement, seeks to shift American attitudes and policy concerning Israel and Palestine towards a human rights approach that guarantees historic justice and equality for Palestinians. Leaders of the project have been arrested in connection with encampments at Washington University in St. Louis.
Sandra Tamari is the executive director of Adalah Justice Project and she and her husband, Steve Tamari, who is a Southern Illinois Edwardsville history professor, were recently arrested at Washington University while supporting the Gaza encampment.
The campus protests have surged across the country, some of them violent where anti-semitic slogans are chanted, since the terror group Hamas invaded Israel, killing more than 1,000 and kidnapping hundreds, and Israel invaded Gaza, home to Hamas, in retaliation.
Republican state Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, said there’s “cultural rot” in faculty lounges at Illinois colleges.
“We have, through our negligence, allowed anti-American, anti Judeo-Christian crusaders to ascend to positions of power in politics, government and academic faculty lounges,” said Wilhour.
Sandra served as assistant director of International Affairs at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville from 2007-2017. Wilhour said Illinois taxpayers, who fund public universities like SIUE, want nothing to do with the “disrespect” he said is going on in the state and around the country.
“What we’re facing today is a harvest of Marxist ideology that has been sewn and nurtured right under our noses,” Wilhour said. “It’s a culture of subversion and destruction that threatens the fabric of our nation. Recall the horror of Oct. 7, a stark reminder that calamity doesn’t stem from an abundance of freedom, too many guns, or too much love for our country. Disaster may well be on our doorstep because we allowed the rise of those in our institutions who look in contempt upon the exceptionalism of our founding.”
Nick and Susan Pritzker are named in the Politico report that indicates they have backed the Tides Foundation through their Libra Foundation. The Tides Foundation has financially partnered with the Adalah Justice Project, according to Tides’ website. Nick is related to the governor. Susan is Nick’s wife.
