RSS
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.
The post Georgetown University Qatar Campus to Host Hamas Member for Talk on ‘Reimagining Palestine’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.