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Ritchie Torres Introduces Legislation to Ban Universities From Accepting Gifts From Terror-Supporting Countries
US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) speaks during the House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC, Sept. 30, 2021. Photo: Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS
US Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) introduced legislation that would bar universities from accepting gifts from foreign countries that have provided assistance to terrorist groups.
The “No Foreign Gifts Act” would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ban institutions of higher learning from taking donations from countries that “have provided financial support of foreign terrorist organizations, including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.” The legislation would also mandate that universities report gift offers from terror-supporting countries to the US Secretary of State.
“The No Foreign Gifts Act represents a crucial step toward safeguarding the integrity of our nation’s higher education system from malicious foreign influence, which has become increasingly pronounced in the aftermath of Oct. 7,” Torres wrote, referring to the day when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel.
“By prohibiting gifts from countries that have supported foreign terrorist organizations, like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, this legislation would ensure that institutions of higher learning remain free from malign financial manipulation that is corrupting the minds of America’s next generation and causing social disorder,” the New York Democrat added.
The growing influence of foreign money on American universities has become a major point of discussion in the months following the Hamas terrorist group’s slaughter of roughly 1,200 people and kidnapping of some 250 throughout southern Israel.
According to a recent report by foreign policy analyst Mitchell Bard, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Kuwait have donated a combined $12.3 billion to American universities since 1981.
These donations have influenced the academic curriculum and program offerings of many prestigious American universities. For example, Brown University accepted a donation to create a professorship in Palestinian Studies. Saudi Arabia also donated $200,000 to Duke University to bankroll the creation of an Islamic and Arabian development studies major. The United Arab Emirates gave $250,000 to Georgetown University to fund a visiting professorship of Arab civilization.
“Foreign influence has no place in our education system — especially when it’s aimed at spreading antisemitism and anti-American sentiment on our college campuses,” Garbarino said in a statement. “For far too long, radical organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine have been propped up by foreign entities with connections to terrorism. Allowing these malign actors to continue funneling money into our colleges and universities would be the height of recklessness.”
Many hobservers ave suggested that foreign actors have influenced the narratives surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on American university campuses. US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines in July warned that “actors tied to Iran’s government” have encouraged and provided financial support to rampant protests opposing Israel’s defensive military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Haines also told Congress that Iran is becoming “increasingly aggressive” in its efforts to “stoke discord” in American institutions. Gabriel Noronha, an expert on Iran and former US State Department official, told National Review that Individuals tied to the Iranian government have been observed “posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support for protesters.”
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ After Israeli Minister’s Criticism
Pope Francis waves after delivering his traditional Christmas Day Urbi et Orbi speech to the city and the world from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, December 25, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican’s various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.
“Yesterday, children were bombed,” said the pope. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”
The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope’s remarks amounted to a “trivialization” of the term genocide.
Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.
The patriarch’s office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope’s remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.
Israeli officials were not immediately reachable for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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IDF Pledges to Implement Lessons from Failure to Intercept Houthi Missile
Iranian-backed Yemeni terrorist leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – The Israeli military said on Saturday that while the investigation into the failure to intercept the missile that hit Tel Aviv early in the morning was still ongoing, some lessons were already being implemented. The ballistic missile, fired by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, landed at a playground in a residential area, leading to 16 people sustaining injuries from glass shards.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said that “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, in regards of both interception and early warning.”
The spokesperson added that “no further details regarding aerial defense activities and the alert system can be disclosed due to operational security considerations.”
The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as “acts of solidarity” with Palestinians in Gaza.
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