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Universities Are Selling Out to Qatar, and Selling Off Their Integrity
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
JNS.org – If you ever doubted that universities care more about money than principles, look no further than their willingness to accept donations from Qatar.
For those unaware, Qatar is a hereditary autocracy that bans political parties, criminalizes dissent, censors the press and has a long record of human-rights abuses, including labor exploitation and human trafficking. Its state-run media network, Al Jazeera, is the principal media source of anti-Israel propaganda in the Middle East. Qatar has also long funded and hosted terrorist groups that are sworn enemies of the West, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS.
“Qatar’s ideological alignment directly contradicts the values of Western nations that recognize these groups as terrorist organizations,” observed Michael Milshtein of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Yet that has not stopped American universities from cozying up to Qatar for cash.
Doha has poured nearly $6 billion into American universities since 1981, making it the largest Arab donor in US higher education. In just one year, between 2023 and 2024, it donated $527 million. Much of this money is funneled through the Qatar Foundation, chaired by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, mother of the current emir and wife of the former one. In the words of its founders, the foundation exists to “realize their ambitions for the future of Qatar.”
“Qatar’s goal is not to promote antisemitic or pro-Palestinian messages,” Gulf expert Ariel Admoni says, “but antisemitism and pro-Palestinian sentiments are byproducts of policies convenient for them.”
He added that “in Western countries, particularly within educated circles, the pro-Palestinian struggle is perceived as a ‘convenient’ cause. Consequently, from the Qatari perspective, this portrayal positions them favorably on what they consider to be the right side of public opinion, especially among the youth.”
Qatar has made 1,143 donations to 63 American universities. In the US Department of Education (DoE) database, only 101—just 9%—disclose what the money was used for.
Cornell University is the biggest beneficiary, receiving more than $2.1 billion. In 2001, it launched the Weill Medical College in Qatar, with the emirate pledging $750 million in 11 years, including undisclosed “fees” to Cornell. According to a 2024 report from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), Cornell failed to report $1.4 billion of this funding (out of $3 billion in unreported contributions for campuses in Qatar).
More than $1.2 billion in Qatar funding previously attributed to Northwestern and Georgetown universities was also inexplicably deleted from the February 2024 DoE report.
Qatar also attempts to exert influence through donations to prestigious university centers. It has contributed, for example, to the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Texas, which was also supported at one point by the Al Jazeera Media Network of Qatar. Diplomats can also get an education from Georgetown University in Qatar, initially called the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. The Qatar Foundation collaborated with the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School to establish a graduate law school at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha. Harvard received a $1 million donation from Qatar in 2024, but no further details were provided.
Academic freedom suffers when oppressive regimes control the purse strings. Northwestern’s campus in Doha censored a Lebanese band with a gay lead singer. A professor was reportedly dismissed for expressing pro-Israel views. These are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms of a deeper rot. Money from autocratic regimes inevitably comes with strings, spoken or unspoken. When universities accept these funds, they assume those strings.
In a rare act of financial sacrifice, Texas A&M announced that it would close its program in Qatar after 21 years, just three years after renewing a 10-year contract. To that point, the DoE recorded seven contributions worth almost $105 million. According to The Washington Post, the previous contract was worth more than $750 million, so the decision was costly. The public reason given was regional instability and changing institutional priorities; however, some believed it was related to a report by ISGAP raising concerns about Qatari access to nuclear-energy research. The university claimed this was misinformation and had no bearing on the decision to leave Qatar.
The Department of Education under the first Trump administration warned that Qatar, along with China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, was “targeting their investments to project soft power, steal sensitive and proprietary research, and spread propaganda.” The hope was that the administration would take measures to prevent universities from taking Qatari cash, or at least demand transparency and accountability.
But what chance is there of that now that we know Trump is prepared to accept a $400 million airplane from the emirate that is seen by many as a bribe?
American universities are supposed to stand for truth, freedom and critical inquiry. Many, however, are willing to trade those values for petrodollars from a regime that criminalizes dissent, bankrolls terror and censors scholars. It’s not just a betrayal of academic integrity. It’s a betrayal of the very ideals that higher education is meant to uphold.
The post Universities Are Selling Out to Qatar, and Selling Off Their Integrity first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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