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Georgetown University Qatar Campus to Host Hamas Member for Talk on ‘Reimagining Palestine’
Wadah Khanfar. Photo: Screenshot
The Qatar campus of Georgetown University has invited a senior member of the Hamas terrorist organization to a campus conference, according to reports.
Georgetown University in Qatar will host the “Reimagining Palestine” conference from Sept. 20-22. The event will “engage scholars, experts, and the public in timely and relevant dialogues on globally significant issues,” according to a description of the gathering.
“Some of the world’s leading academics and practitioners will gather for a thought-provoking exploration of such pressing, forward-looking questions as the future of Gaza and how to make it livable again, to pathways toward a viable Palestinian political future, and the regional implications of the current moment,” the university’s website reads. “This conference aims to advance academic discourse on Palestine, meaningfully engaging participants in dialogue that challenges the status quo, and envisions new possibilities for justice and peace.”
Wadah Khanfar is set to speak at the conference. According to the Raya Media Network, a Palestinian outlet, Khanfar “was active in the Hamas movement and was one of its most prominent leaders in the movement’s office in Sudan.”
“Wadah Khanfar is considered one of the senior political leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas],” the Raya Media Network previously reported. “He held the position of head of Hamas’s Political Office for [South and North Africa] in the South African city of Johannesburg, where he operated under the name ‘The African Middle East Center for Studies and Research.’”
Mohamed Fahmy, a former bureau chief for the Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera, in 2015 wrote that Khanfar was “described on the Muslim Brotherhood’s own website in 2007 as having been ‘one of the most prominent leaders in the Hamas Office in Sudan.’”
Khanfar also gave an eulogy for prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi after his death in 2022. Members of Hamas were reportedly present for the funeral service as well.
Georgetown University in Qatar also hosted Khanfar in March of this year for a conference titled “On Palestine.” Mehdi Hasan, a progressive journalist and prominent critic of Israel, interviewed Khanfar.
In the months following Oct. 7, the campus has hosted a variety of seemingly anti-Israel events. In February, the school hosted pro-Palestinian historian Tareq Baconi for an event titled “Israel’s War on Palestinians: Gaza as Epicenter.” That same month, the university hosted Daniel Brumberg, an associate professor in government at the university’s US campus, for a lecture titled “Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Flood and Iran’s Axis of Resistance Narrative.” Al-Aqsa Flood is Hamas’s name for its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, where the Palestinian terrorist group massacred 1,200 people and kidnapped at least 250 hostages.
The presence of American universities in Qatar has long been controversial, with critics pointing out that the Qatari government has helped fund Hamas. Qatar also hosts several high-ranking Hamas leaders, who often live in luxury outside of Gaza. Some critics argue that the Islamic country severely curtails academic freedom of American universities.
“Liberal arts schools face particular challenges in settings where freedom of thought and association is restricted,” Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute, wrote in 2015. “With the reassertion of authoritarian control after the Arab Spring, branch campuses may struggle to balance the surge of interest in the region against local (and funder) sensitivities.”
Alongside Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon University, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Northwestern University operate campuses in the Middle Eastern country. Texas A&M announced plans to shutter its Qatar campus in February.
Georgetown’s main campus in Washington, DC has been rocked by anti-Israel protests in the months following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Students have accused the Jewish state of committing a “genocide” and “apartheid” and even rallied across campus to demand the university cut all financial ties to Israel.
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Eurovision Denies Claims of Vote Rigging as Spanish PM Calls for Israel’s Exclusion From Cultural Events
Yuval Raphael from Israel with the title “New Day Will Rise” on stage at the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in the Arena St. Jakobshalle. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa via Reuters Connect
The director of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on Monday defended the results of this year’s competition in response to accusations about voting being rigged in favor of Israel, which finished second place in the grand final on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland.
At the same time, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for Israel to be excluded from all international cultural events, including the Eurovision Song Contest, because of its military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
National broadcasters from Spain and Belgium have expressed doubts about Israeli singer Yuval Raphael finishing first place in the public vote (televoting) and second place in the grand final with her song “New Day Will Rise.” Austrian singer JJ won first place with his song “Wasted Love” and a total of 436 points, while Raphael finished with 357 points.
Raphael received the most votes from the public at 297 — more than any of the 26 finalists — but ranked 14th in the jury vote, which resulted in her second-place finish in the Eurovision grand final.
Eurovision Director Martin Green defended the reliability of the results, saying there has been no indication of “bias or irregularities” in the voting for this year’s contest.
“The televoting system currently used in Eurovision is considered the most advanced in the world today, combining advanced verification processes, data security mechanisms, and analytical review of voting patterns,” Green said in a statement. “[T]here is no suspicion of bias or irregularities in the awarding of points — not even in relation to the full score given to Israel by Spanish viewers.”
“It is important to emphasize that the voting operation for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and each country’s result is checked and verified by a huge team of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns,” Green added. “An independent compliance monitor reviews both jury and public vote data to ensure we have a valid result. Our voting partner Once has confirmed that a valid vote was recorded in all countries participating in this year’s Grand Final and in the Rest of the World.”
Martin Österdahl, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)’s executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, echoed similar sentiments about voting results being reliable in a statement to the EFE news agency. Like Green, he also mentioned that voting results are verified by the independent auditing firm and Dutch company Once.net and reviewed by compliance supervisors.
Spain’s national broadcaster Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) has urged the EBU, which coordinates the Eurovision, for an audit of the results from Saturday night after Raphael received 12 points — the maximum amount given — from televoters in Spain, despite public protests in the country against Israel’s participation in the competition. RTVE previously called for Israel’s participation in future Eurovision contests to be up for debate because of the Israel-Hamas war.
Immediately before broadcasting the grand final of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, RTVE broadcast a message in Spanish and English that called for “Peace and Justice for Palestine.” RTVE could be fined for the messaging since the EBU has said Eurovision must remain an apolitical competition. The EBU already threatened the Spanish national broadcaster that it could be fined for broadcasting messages about Gaza.
“We take every broadcaster’s concerns seriously,” Österdahl told EFE, before adding that Eurovision organizers have been in contact with RTVE about their concerns since the grand final.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a longtime critic of Israel, on Monday compared the Jewish state to Russia, which was banned from international events like the Eurovision after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He accused the global community of displaying a “double standard” when it comes to the treatment of Israel, and said the Jewish state should not be allowed to participate in cultural events around the world amid the war in Gaza.
“I think that nobody was shocked three years ago, when Russia began the invasion of Ukraine, they were excluded from international competitions. For example, we recently saw it this past weekend at Eurovision. Therefore, Israel should not do so either,” Sanchez said at a conference in Madrid. “We cannot allow these double standards, not even in culture events.”
The Spanish premiere also expressed solidarity with “the people of Ukraine and the people of Palestine, who are experiencing the senselessness of war and bombing.”
On Monday, the Flemish public broadcaster VRT also called for more transparency from the EBU regarding the voting for this year’s Eurovision.
“We have no indication that the counting of the televotes wasn’t carried out correctly, but we are asking for complete transparency on the part of the EBU,” said VRT’s spokesperson Yasmine Van der Borght. “The question is above all whether the current system guarantees a fair reflection of the opinion of viewers and listeners.”
The VRT also said it supports RTVE’s concerns about Israel’s participation in future Eurovision contests and again issued an “explicit call to engage in debate with all nations, out of a genuine commitment and concern for the survival of the contest.” VRT said it will reconsider its own participation in future Eurovision competitions if the EBU does not address its concerns about the contest.
“We at the VRT note that the Eurovision Song Contest as it is currently organized has become less and less a unifying and apolitical event. It is increasingly at odds with its original standards and values and with the standards and values of public broadcasting,” the broadcaster said in a statement. “At many levels the VRT collaborates well with the EBU. However, without serious answers with regard to our concerns about the Eurovision Song Contest we will question our future participation.”
During the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest this year, VRT broadcast a message about alleged human rights violations by Israel in Gaza, freedom of the press, and called for a ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The message said: “This is industrial action. We condemn the violations of human rights by the State of Israel. Furthermore, the State of Israel is destroying freedom of the press. That’s why we interrupt the picture for a moment. #CeasefireNow #StopGenocide.” VRT did the same during the second semi-final of the Eurovision contest last year.
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Iran’s Top Leader Khamenei Slams ‘Outrageous’ US Demands in Nuclear Talks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said US demands that Tehran stop enriching uranium are “excessive and outrageous,” state media reported, voicing doubts whether talks on a new nuclear deal will succeed.
“I don’t think nuclear talks with the US will bring results. I don’t know what will happen,” Khamenei said, adding that Washington should avoid making “nonsense” demands in the negotiations, four rounds of which have been held.
“A date has been suggested but we have not yet accepted it,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state media on Tuesday when asked about a fifth round of talks, which an Iranian official said on Monday might be held this weekend in Rome.
“We are witnessing positions on the US side that do not go along with any logic and are creating problems for the negotiations. That’s why we have not determined the next round of talks, we are reviewing the matter and hope logic will prevail,” Araqchi added.
The talks on a new nuclear deal appear on shaky ground as both Iran and the US have clashed over the issue of uranium enrichment.
Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on Monday the talks would fail if Washington insists Tehran refrain from domestic enrichment of uranium, which the US says is a possible pathway to developing nuclear bombs. Tehran says its nuclear energy program has entirely peaceful purposes, a claim disputed by several Western countries.
Last week US President Donald Trump said Tehran needed to “move quickly or something bad is going to happen” after being given a proposal for a deal. The Islamic Republic maintains it has not received any written proposal from Washington.
Trump has repeatedly warned Iran it would be bombed and face severe sanctions if it did not reach a compromise to resolve its long disputed nuclear energy program.
During his first, 2017-21 term as president, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed temporary limits on Tehran’s enrichment activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
Trump, who branded the now moribund 2015 accord one-sided in Iran’s favor, also reimposed sweeping US sanctions on Iran. The Islamic Republic responded by escalating enrichment.
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Elections, Gaza, Polarization Drive Political Crime to Record High in Germany
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt holds a chart showing the development of antisemitic crime, during a press conference on Figures for Politically Motivated Crime in the Country, in Berlin, Germany, May 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
A series of closely fought elections, the war in Gaza, and deepening political polarization helped drive the number of politically motivated crimes in Germany to a record high last year, with an especially sharp growth in far-right violence.
The number of such offences recorded by police surged 40.2 percent to 84,172 in 2024, a report published on Tuesday by the Interior Ministry showed, a record since such data began to be collected in 2001. The number of violent political crimes rose 15 percent to 4,107, the highest level since 2016.
“Last year we saw a massive expansion of politically motivated crime coming from the right,” conservative Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told a news conference at which the figures were announced.
“Forty-five percent of the victims of politically motivated violence were injured by right-wing perpetrators,” he said.
He gave the example of assaults on gay pride parades by organized groups of far-right young people last summer.
Elsewhere, police recorded increased numbers of attacks on migrants, especially after several high-profile car-ramming and stabbing attacks on public events by immigrants, some of them asylum seekers.
There have also been increases in politically motivated crimes by the far left though such offences were far less likely to be violent, the data indicated.
Like other Western countries, Germany has been afflicted by tensions resulting from the rise of the populist far right, economic uncertainty, and growing anger, especially among immigrant communities, at the government’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The far-right Alternative for Germany scored its best-ever results in five elections – three regional, one national, and one European – in 2024, calling for tighter immigration controls and even a departure from the European Union.
The nativist party was earlier this month officially classified as “right-extremist” by Germany‘s security services, which listed cases of its politicians dismissing naturalised immigrants as “passport Germans” and implying that immigrants from Muslim countries were more likely to be criminals.
But Dobrindt said he saw no reason to ban the AfD, a move some politicians have advocated. The AfD, now the second largest party in parliament, has denied posing a threat to democracy, says it opposes violence and has brought a legal challenge against authorities’ characterization of it as extremist.
“To ban a party, we have to have evidence of an attack on the rule of law and democracy,” Dobrindt said, “and the security services’ recent assessment doesn’t sufficiently demonstrate that.”
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