All those student protests on the US seem to be about stopping their universities from supporting the Israel government. But supporting a foreign government is not a normal thing for a university to do, why do they do it?
Is there some educational or research resource they get?
I will try to be as neutral as I can, though it seems impossible in this space.
A lot of Jewish people live outside of Israel for reasons going way back in history, we won’t get into the details of that now. Many of them remain closely tied with family / community / culture / religious practices & beliefs in Israel. These folks are sometimes called the Diaspora.
Some of them live in the United States (and are US citizens) and some of them are very successful / influential. Like almost any other demographic group, some of them can be found on the boards of colleges and universities, corporations, etc.
And some of these folks are still very much invested in Israel and care about what is going on over there, like other folks in the Diaspora.
I hope that helps. I am not taking a side with this answer, just trying to provide some general context on the how we got here.
I think this covers everything except for one last question the OP might have had. Israel was, and still is, a US ally. Trading is generally pretty open with those allies, so citizens are fairly free to invest with any company headquartered in those countries. Investing in an Israeli company was no different than investing in an Australian or UK company. Offshore investment can be smart too, as they can potentially insulate you from the effects of economic shocks in America (in the short term). I’m sure someone much more versed in economics or finances could give you a better summary of that end though.
Just in case they’re wondering whether/why it’s possible/common to have foreign investments in the first place. Your comment is a great explanation for why Israel specifically.