Private equity watchdog fueled by left-wing cash employs radical anti-Israel activists, Marxists

FIRST ON FOX: Several staff members, who work for a left-leaning nonprofit that targets private equity-owned companies, have engaged in anti-Israel protests, some of which led to their arrest, and made statements sympathetic towards Hamas in the months following the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel.

At least five staff members from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit organization described as ‘an activist group that is critical of the social impact of private equity firms” by Influence Watch, took part in anti-Israel protests or promoted radical claims related to the conflict, a FOX Business review found.

PESP, which is also known as the Financial Services Stakeholder Project, has been previously funded by the Soros-backed Foundation to Promote an Open Society, the Ford Foundation, and Surdna Foundation, among other left-leaning groups, according to Influence Watch.

On the day of the Hamas attack on Israel, where over 1,200 people were murdered and hundreds more taken hostage, PESP senior research coordinator Abhilasha Bhola liked a post on X that included the phrase “from the river to the sea” which is widely understood as a call for the elimination of the state of Israel.

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Bhola tweeted in 2016 that she was a “Marxist.”

Bhola also liked a X post of a pro-Palestinian protester defacing a painting of Lord Balfour. She has also supported posts celebrating a boycott of Israel.

Community organizer K Agbebiyi, a senior housing campaign coordinator with PESP, attended a November 2023 rally in Washington, D.C. “demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine” and in December of that year she posted a photo of a mural titled “Liberation looks like terrorism in the eyes of the oppressor.” 

Additionally, Agbebiyi signed a letter with other alumni of the University of Michigan slamming the school for “anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim animus” and demanding the university “discontinue exchange programs and strategic partnerships with Israeli universities.”

In 2022, Agbebiyi posted on X that she is “becoming more principled of a Marxist” and described her political views as “communist.”

Azani Creekes, a research coordinator for PESP, attended an anti-Israel protest in New York City in January and was arrested on disorderly conduct charges, the New York Post reported.

Amanda Mendoza works as a senior climate research and campaign coordinator for PESP and has a social media footprint that includes praising anti-Israel protesters and promoting their overall movement.

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Mendoza has liked numerous posts on X celebrating civil disobedience from anti-Israel protesters blocking traffic and posts accusing President Biden of committing “genocide” against Palestinians. 

She has also liked posts praising British MP Jeremy Corbyn for the English “government’s complicity in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people” as well as posts praising Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel expressing “solidarity” with Palestinian students. 

Mendoza also liked a X post criticizing the president of the University of California system for sending an email expressing concern about antisemitism.

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Alyssa Giachino, the investment engagement director at PESP, reposted a video of progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib where she accused Israel of “war crimes” while calling for a ceasefire. Giachino has also liked X posts accusing Israel of genocide and accusing the New York Times of “manufacturing consent for genocide” through its reporting.

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PESP’s staff union released a statement weeks after the October 7 attack that did not mention Hamas, calling for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for the end of Israel’s occupation of Palestine” and a “complete cessation of US military aid to Israel.”

PESP’s staff union linked the private equity industry to the conflict, stating: “We also understand occupied Palestine as a site of extraction for the private equity industry which seeks to turn a profit at the expense of human dignity and life.”

Fox News Digital reached out to PESP multiple times for comment but did not receive a response.