Radical anti-Israel nonprofit urged rampaging Columbia occupiers to recreate BLM ‘summer of 2020’ riots

Composite image of De Los Santos and protests
Composite image of De Los Santos and protests
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The anti-Israel protesters who stormed Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall were urged by a radical activist group to rekindle the bloody Black Lives Matter riots of the summer of 2020, a new report says.

Furiously pumping the bellows is New York City nonprofit The People’s Forum (TPF), an anti-Israel organization with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party and backed by American businessman Neville Roy Singham, a self-described socialist known for financially supporting left-wing causes through Goldman Sachs’ charity arm.

At a Monday night meeting in Manhattan hosted by TPF — hours before the infamous building takeover — around 100 mask-wearing activists were worked into a lather by the organization’s executive director, Manolo De Los Santos, who called for a “final blow to destroy Israel” in a viral video earlier this year.

Addressing the group, De Los Santos spewed invective about Columbia’s “Zionist” administration, whom he skewered for wanting “to be more like their masters in Israel,” the Washington Free Beacon wrote.

The People’s Forum Executive Director Manolo De Los Santos, who reportedly encouraged a group of Columbia University protesters to bring back the “summer of 2020” before they broke into Hamilton Hall last week, is arrested during a rally in the Big Apple in January. Instagram/@peoplesforumnyc
The People’s Forum Executive Director Manolo De Los Santos, who reportedly encouraged a group of Columbia University protesters to bring back the “summer of 2020” before they broke into Hamilton Hall last week, is arrested during a rally in the Big Apple in January. Instagram/@peoplesforumnyc

He urged the crowd, many of them shrouded in keffiyehs, to “give Joe Biden a hot summer” and to “make it untenable for the politics of usual to take place in this country.”

He also referenced bringing back “the summer of 2020,” invoking the widespread violence that besieged major US cities from coast to coast in the weeks and months after the police-involved killing of George Floyd on May 25 of that year.

The riots — infamously couched by CNN as “fiery but mostly peaceful” — caused more than $400 million in damage nationwide, including to more than 450 Big Apple businesses that were looted or damaged.

A few hours after Monday’s meeting convened, dozens of the criminal protesters illegally raided the Manhattan campus building, gaining access through a glass-paneled door one activist smashed with a hammer.

A cowardly masked criminal with a hammer smashed a window at historic Hamilton Hall to gain entry. Getty Images
A cowardly masked criminal with a hammer smashed a window at historic Hamilton Hall to gain entry. Getty Images

The mob vandalized the historic structure — breaking doors and windows — and blockaded entrances, a university spokesman said at the time. They also hung at least one sign from a Hamilton Hall window emblazoned with the word “intifada,” photos and videos showed.

Cops descended on the Morningside Heights campus late Tuesday after being called in by Columbia President Minouche Shafik, with officers clad in riot gear using a ramp-like setup to gain access to the building through a window facing Amsterdam Avenue.

In all, 44 people were arrested, including two university staff members and 13 “outsiders” who were not affiliated with the school, Columbia said in a press release Thursday.

How The Post helped cover the travesty. rfaraino
How The Post helped cover the travesty. rfaraino

The presence of these outside agitators was echoed by the NYPD as well as Mayor Eric Adams.

“As the anti-Israel protests began to escalate, it became abundantly clear that individuals unaffiliated with these schools had entered these different campuses and, in some cases, were even training students in unlawful protest tactics, many which we witnessed escalating into violent conduct,” Adams said in a statement after the mass arrests.

One such outside group that has played a hand in numerous anti-Israel protests around the city since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel is The People’s Forum, an organization primarily funded by Singham.

Members of the NYPD arrest protesters blocking the entrance to Columbia University. Getty Images
Members of the NYPD arrest protesters blocking the entrance to Columbia University. Getty Images

Billing itself as “a movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities,” TPF is bankrolled by Singham and his wife Jodie Evans — founder of activist group Code Pink — who donated more than $20 million to the organization between 2017 and 2022, according to The Free Press.

Much of it was funneled through the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, according to fund’s Form 990, which revealed TPF received $12 million in 2019, $4.4 million in 2018 and $2.5 million in 2017.

A spokesman for the investment banking giant has disavowed any connection to the activist group, emphatically clarifying that contributions made through its charitable wing come from clients’ funds, not the bank itself.

“Goldman Sachs has no relationship with The People’s Forum and does not share its values,” the spokesman told The Post.

Widespread violence besieged major US cities in the weeks and months after the police-involved killing of George Floyd in 2020. Christopher Sadowski
Widespread violence besieged major US cities in the weeks and months after the police-involved killing of George Floyd in 2020. Christopher Sadowski

In January, South Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) urged Goldman Sachs to “cut ties” with TPF after a viral video surfaced showing De Los Santos at what appeared to be an event in New York City spewing “Nazi rhetoric” and calling for “that final blow to destroy Israel.”

As a tax-exempt non-profit, TPF could lose its charity status under IRS regulations governing 501(c)(3) organizations if it is found to have engaged in “planned activities that violate laws” or “induce the commission of a crime.”

The People’s Forum did not respond to a request for comment by The Post on Sunday.