Anti-Israel demonstration on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, DC in September 2024. Photo: Bryan Olin Dozier via Reuters Connect

A leading Jewish advocacy organization on Thursday implored the US Justice Department to investigate Georgetown University following a bombshell report which exposed a secret contract with Qatar, arguing the school is acting as a foreign agent of the Qatari monarchy.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported this week that, based on documents provided by the US House Education Committee, Georgetown in 2024 inked a $630,000 deal with Qatar which guaranteed the monarchy’s support of an initiative to promote awareness of “Islamophobia.” However, critics noted that the terms of the deal required the university to surrender intellectual and logistical control of events held to promote the program to the Qatari foreign ministry, which enjoyed the right to dictate “themes and speakers.”

The partnership resulted in Georgetown inviting to campus a series of problematic Islamists tied to the Qatari government, including extreme anti-Zionists and an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. The last of the money was paid out in January, according to sections of the agreement shared by the Free Beacon, but on Thursday, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law insisted that the matter is not over and called on the federal government to determine whether Georgetown University broke the law by failing to register itself as a foreign agent.

“Qatar has spent untold amounts of money embedding itself in American higher education, and what this contract reveals is exactly how that influence works in practice: a foreign government quietly shaping what gets said and who gets to say it at events held in our nation’s capital,” Brandeis Center chairman and founder Kenneth Marcus said in a statement. “Our foreign agent laws are designed to address situations just like this, and we must ensure accountability in order to protect the interests of students.”

Arguing that the school’s arrangement with Qatar “clearly violates the Foreign Agents Registration Act,” the Brandies Center argued in its letter that the US federal government must “look into this matter and ensure that the American public be fully informed of Georgetown’s role not as a neutral presenter of information but the creature of the Qatar government promoting its point of view”

Georgetown University has not responded to requests for comment on the allegation.

The Brandies Center’s letter to Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche came less than four months after the Middle East Forum, an American think tank, released a report describing how Qatar has allegedly exploited and manipulated Georgetown since 2005 by hooking the school on money that buys influence, promotes Islamism, and degrades the curricula of one of the most recognized names in American higher education.

“The unchecked funds provided by Qatar demonstrate how foreign countries can shape scholarship, faculty recruitment, and teaching in our universities to reflect their preferences,” the report explained. “At Georgetown, courses and research show growing ideological drift toward post-colonial scholarship, anti-Western critiques, and anti-Israel advocacy, with some faculty engaged in political activism related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or anti-Western interventionism.”

Georgetown is hardly the only school to receive Qatari money. Indeed, Qatar is the single largest foreign source of funding to American colleges and universities, according to a recently launched public database from the US Department of Education that reveals the scope of overseas influence in US higher education. Meanwhile, the federal dashboard shows Qatar has provided $6.6 billion in gifts and contracts to US universities, more than any other foreign government or entity. Of the schools that received Qatari money, Cornell University topped the list with $2.3 billion, followed by Carnegie Mellon University ($1 billion), Texas A&M University ($992.8 million), and Georgetown ($971.1 million), according to the figures listed at the time of the database’s initial publication.

The US opened diplomatic relations with Qatar in 1971 after it achieved independence from Great Britain, and the two states continue to enjoy what the US State Department describes as a “strategic partnership” for fostering economic growth, counterterrorism, cultural exchange, and defense and security cooperation.

However, Qatar has generously financed Hamas for years, and it has hosted the Palestinian terrorist group’s political bureau in Doha since 2012. Yet, the US designated Qatar a major non-NATO ally in 2022, and in December, President Donald Trump established, via executive order, a security commitment to defend the country if it is attacked by an aggressor.

In return for inclusion in the US international system, Qatar has invested vast sums of money in the American economy, forging along the way relationships which boost its ability to influence an array of interest groups which shape popular opinion and government policy.

Last May, the Middle East Forum released a separate report exposing the extent of Qatar’s far-reaching financial ties to American institutions. The findings showed that Qatar has attempted to expand its soft power in the US by spending $33.4 billion on business and real estate projects, over $6 billion on universities, and $72 million on American lobbyists since 2012.

The soft power campaign has focused heavily on higher education, according to a November 2025 report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), which found that Qatar funneled roughly $20 billion into American schools and universities over the past five decades. ISGAP argued the money facilitates a conspiracy to embed groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in American academia, civil society, and government agencies. It amounts, ISGAP argued, to a “civilization jihad” strategy which hides in plain sight for being an initiative housed in the government of a US ally.

Georgetown University is a valuable case study in just how much Qatar gets for its money, ISGAP said in another report which alleged that the monarchy translates its oil wealth into Georgetown courses which “minimize the threat of Islamist extremism” and promote anti-Zionism.

“The Qatari regime targets Georgetown due to its unrivaled access to current and future leaders. Over two decades, that investment has paid off — embedding Muslim Brotherhood scholars and narratives deep within the American academic and political culture,” Dr. Charles Asher Small, executive director of ISGAP, said last June. “This masterful use of soft power is not only about Georgetown. It is how authoritarian regimes are buying access, narrative control, and ideological legitimacy — and too many universities are willing sellers.”

Qatar’s reach has even extended into the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) office of Carnegie Mellon University, according to a recent lawsuit which says that a DEI official there obstructed an investigation into an incident of antisemitic discrimination because her salary is partly funded by the country. A judge has since ordered Carnegie Mellon to turn over any documents “reflecting the full economic benefit received from its Qatari relationship.”

What the case reveals about foreign influence in the US is disturbing, Jewish advocacy groups have said.

“Foreign governments with appalling human rights records are funding the very offices meant to protect students’ civil rights,” Ziporah Reich, director of The Lawfare Project, said in February. “This should alarm every parent, every student, and every policymaker in this country. The court recognized that foreign government funding is not peripheral but potentially central to understanding how civil rights laws are applied on campus.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

British-Iranian rapper 021Kid in the music video for his Persian remix of the song “Harbu Darbu” (feat. Stilla & Ness). Photo: Screenshot

British-Iranian rapper 021Kid has released a Persian remix of the song “Harbu Darbu” by Israeli rap duo Ness & Stilla, and in the lyrics, he calls for the death of the Iranian regime forces responsible for the killing and oppression of their own people.

The rapper, whose real name is Tony Mohraz, sings in both Farsi and English in “Harbu Darbu,” which was originally released by Ness and Stilla in 2023 in response to the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

In the Persian remix, 021Kid calls for the destruction of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military force and internationally designated terrorist group, as well as the Basij parliamentary force that operates underneath it. The regime uses the Basij to violently suppress protests and crush political opposition across the country.

The rapper, who was born in Tehran but now lives in the United Kingdom, also sings about Iranian leaders and senior military figures who have been killed in US and Israel strikes. He mentions by name Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, former Iranian Air Force Commander Aziz Nasirzadeh, and Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force.

021Ki further targets the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), an Iranian opposition group that has been persecuted by the regime and seeks its overthrow but was a US-designated terrorist group from 1997 to 2012.

“We don’t want mullah, neither MEK. Smoke ’em on site, show no mercy,” 021Kid raps in English. He then sings in Farsi, “I’m standing with Iran till the end … We get our country back, just watch.”

The song includes some Hebrew phrases as well.  “My Persian Jews, Irani Chai and that’s why Am Israeli Chai,” 021Kid raps in the song. “I pull up Tel Aviv, Ma Nishma? [How are you?].”

The music video also features clips from Ness and Stilla’s music video for the Hebrew version of “Harbu Darbu.”

021Kid explained the intention behind his new song in an Instagram post.

“After what happened in Golders Green, London a few days ago where a Jewish man was stabbed — it’s a reminder that hate doesn’t just live online, it shows up in real life,” he wrote, referring to the antisemitic stabbing attack in which two Jewish men were injured in late April.

“Since January, the people of Israel & the jewish [sic] community have shown strength, resilience, and unity and solidarity standing next to us Iranians. As Persians and sons of Cyrus the Great we see it we respect it,” 021Kid further wrote on social media. “In times like this, real allies don’t stay silent. We stand together against hate, against violence, and for something bigger than politics — humanity, strength, and loyalty … From Persians to Israelis — we stand with you, to the very end AM IRANI CHAI & AM ISRAEL CHAI.”

In the original “Harbu Darbu,” released after the Oct. 7 attack in 2023, Ness & Stilla call for revenge against Hamas and Hezbollah, and threaten celebrities who voiced support for the terrorist groups or condemned Israel. The rappers name Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and top Hamas officials Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, saying “every dog’s day will come.” All three have since been killed by Israel.

In 2024, Ness & Stilla claimed that were denied visas to enter the United States because of the song. The track also received backlash from pro-Palestinian activists who called for it to be removed from YouTube, claiming that it violated the platform’s harassment policies, but YouTube ultimately decided to let the song remain on its website.

Watch the music video for 021Kid’s “Harbu Darbu [Persian Remix]” featuring Ness & Stilla below.