Today in bizaare fundraisers, a GoFundMe campaign created for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Pi Kappa Phi fraternity gained significant traction, with American billionaire and activist investor Bill Ackman listed as a top donor. The fraternity members were praised for defending the US national flag against pro-Palestinian protesters on campus.
The fundraiser, which aimed to reward the fraternity — or, to “throw ’em a rager” — for their actions, has raised close to $350,000 as of this writing. Saurabh Sharma, president of the conservative public policy organization American Moment, appeared to confirm Ackman’s identity as the top donor.
All this started after the UNC Chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) replaced the Star-Spangled Banner with the Palestinian flag at Polk Place, a quadrangle named after the 11th US President James K. Polk. Police officers and interim chancellor Lee Roberts responded by bringing down the foreign flag and hoisting the US flag, with Pi Kappa Phi members shielding it from protesters.
Roberts said that the US flag would remain as long as he was chancellor and pledged to keep students safe from disruptions caused by a small minority. Police cleared the area of protesters’ encampments, detaining 36 individuals, many of whom were not UNC students.
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Related: Jewish Student Files Lawsuit Against Columbia Over Campus Safety Concerns
Similar incidents occurred at the City College of New York, where NYPD officers restored the US flag after protesters had raised the Palestinian flag. Pro-Palestinian protests have spread to at least 30 campuses across the U.S., with Columbia University being the epicenter. Mayor Eric Adams criticized the infiltration of peaceful protests by “professional outside agitators.”
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