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Only a month and a half into the new school year and one of the most prevalent worries on college campuses is not grades, not homecoming, not even football; it’s more protests about the war in Gaza.
No sooner had the semester began than student organizations run by organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) reignited protests that have done everything from openly support Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organization, to simply assaulting Jews on the street. These protests have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
While the protestors have several demands, one of the most prominent is that universities “divest” from Israel — defined as ending all academic cooperation with Israeli scholars, institutions, and corporations, saying that doing otherwise represents support for a “genocidal settler state”. While some universities are resisting calls to “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction,” many are giving into the demands.
These reinvigorated protests came on the heels of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) reversing their long-standing opposition to academic boycotts, a policy change lacking any clear rationale and raising concerns about academic freedom given the ongoing calls to boycott any and all Israeli institutions.
The protestors and the AAUP have a point, but perhaps not the one they think.
For too long, the United States has silently allowed a hostile foreign power to funnel billions into American academic institutions, influence research to suit illiberal political ends, and disrupt campus life to weaken and confuse the next generation of American scholars, journalists, and leaders. That influence needs to stop.
This is why higher education must financially divest from Qatar.
A 2020 study by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy found strong associations between Qatari investment and SJP campus activity. Qatari influence goes beyond student organizations, to even professors and administrators, all of whom have played a role in the rise of antisemitism on college campuses.
These investments are anything but minor. Between 2001 and 2021, the Qatari government spent $4.7 billion on American higher education, and six American universities opened satellite campuses in the Gulf state (though Texas A&M will soon close theirs). Israeli financial investments are negligible in comparison.
Divestment from Qatar would mean universities rejecting Qatari financial investments, shutting down their satellite campuses in Qatar, and ending grants or partnerships funded by the Qatari government. Such financial entanglements represent a conflict of interest, given Qatar’s openly sponsoring terrorism, for both America and all of Academia. Higher education is meant to be an open and collaborative environment, something that state sponsored terrorism directly threatens. Decisions to divest should not be made lightly, but if anyone is deserving of such action, it’s Qatar.
To start, if any state merits the label of “genocidal” or “terrorist,” Qatar is an exponentially stronger candidate than Israel. Not only has Qatar funded Hamas, they also broadcast Hamas’ rhetoric on their state-run media channel. Qatar has ensured that Hamas’ political bureau lives in luxury, housing them for nearly a decade in one of the country’s finest hotels. Qatar has been accused of similarly supporting terrorist organizations like the Islamic State, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al-Qaeda.
Moreover, Qatar has strong bilateral ties with Iran, one of the United States’ most dangerous and powerful geopolitical rivals. For years, Iran has repeatedly directed their proxies to attack American troops stationed in the area, and the country is now taking an extremely aggressive stance against Israel — all while trying to develop a nuclear bomb and funding destructive, antisemitic campus protests in the U.S.. Although Qatar makes vague gestures towards curbing Iran’s ambitions, it’s abundantly clear whose side they are really on.
Qatar’s treatment of their own citizens is no better. The country has no regard for women’s rights and no conception of freedom of expression. Their monarch, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, wields power with a level of non-accountability a Medieval King could only dream of. Qatar tortures people simply for being LGBTQ+, and their 2022 World Cup experience was built on the backs of slave labor.
Qatar’s influence on U.S. higher education isn’t just financial; it’s ideological. Qatar uses their investments to promote perspectives that support their illiberal regime–––and sometimes blatantly support terrorism–––which weakens support for liberal values, including the ideals of liberal education.
Qatari investments might help university budgets, but is that financial support worth betraying our ideals? For all our pride in values like diversity, equity, and inclusion, academia seems perfectly willing to ignore grievous violations of those principles as long as the perpetrators have enough money.
This is glaringly hypocritical. The same Western universities re-title buildings named after slave owners while accepting funds from a nation built and upheld on modern slavery. Institutions protest for women’s rights while being funded by a regime that denies women basic freedoms and openly subjugates them to men. This flagrant double standard is not merely deeply hypocritical, but also undermines public trust in higher education.
It’s not as if American universities haven’t responded to geopolitical threats before. Only five years ago, there were more than 100 of China’s state-sponsored Confucius Institutes at American universities. Now, there are fewer than six. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, many American universities cut ties with their pro-Kremlin Russian partners. When Iran underwent the Islamic Revolution in 1979, many American universities ended long standing arrangements. Qatar shouldn’t be treated differently.
Higher education’s sacred trust is developing students into tomorrow’s leaders, people willing and able to champion the best interests of their communities. Accepting money from a regime like Qatar, which fundamentally and brutally opposes the values we claim to hold dear, egregiously violates that trust, devaluing any research or advocacy coming from such institutions. Thus, to maintain higher education’s integrity, we need to re-evaluate our relationship with Qatar.
Such action need not necessitate an academic boycott. The free exchange of ideas through international academic collaboration is essential to academic freedom. However, accepting financial support from the Qatari regime is entirely different. Universities shouldn’t sever academic ties, but they must stop taking money–––whether in the form of research centers, campuses, or funded programs–––from a regime so fundamentally opposed to and dedicated to undermining Higher Education’s values.
This issue cannot remain confined to abstract discussions in administrative meetings — or even op-eds written by obnoxious young academics — but must become a priority for the entire higher education community. Universities must take a stand and ensure that their financial partnerships align with the ethical standards they promote. Our students’ futures — and the credibility of higher education — depend on it. In an era in which public trust in academia is lower than at any other time in recent history, that is credibility that our universities cannot afford to lose.
Aaron Pomerantz is a social psychologist and postdoctoral research fellow at Rice University’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders. His work has appeared at outlets like RealClear Education, Newsweek, and Current Psychology.
Garion Frankel is a Ph.D student in PK-12 educational leadership at Texas A&M University. His work has appeared in outlets like USA Today, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal.
Only a month and a half into the new school year and one of the most prevalent worries on college campuses is not grades, not homecoming, not even football; it’s more protests about the war in Gaza.
No sooner had the semester began than student organizations run by organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) reignited protests that have done everything from openly support Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organization, to simply assaulting Jews on the street. These protests have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
While the protestors have several demands, one of the most prominent is that universities “divest” from Israel — defined as ending all academic cooperation with Israeli scholars, institutions, and corporations, saying that doing otherwise represents support for a “genocidal settler state”. While some universities are resisting calls to “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction,” many are giving into the demands.
These reinvigorated protests came on the heels of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) reversing their long-standing opposition to academic boycotts, a policy change lacking any clear rationale and raising concerns about academic freedom given the ongoing calls to boycott any and all Israeli institutions.
The protestors and the AAUP have a point, but perhaps not the one they think.
For too long, the United States has silently allowed a hostile foreign power to funnel billions into American academic institutions, influence research to suit illiberal political ends, and disrupt campus life to weaken and confuse the next generation of American scholars, journalists, and leaders. That influence needs to stop.
This is why higher education must financially divest from Qatar.
A 2020 study by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy found strong associations between Qatari investment and SJP campus activity. Qatari influence goes beyond student organizations, to even professors and administrators, all of whom have played a role in the rise of antisemitism on college campuses.
These investments are anything but minor. Between 2001 and 2021, the Qatari government spent $4.7 billion on American higher education, and six American universities opened satellite campuses in the Gulf state (though Texas A&M will soon close theirs). Israeli financial investments are negligible in comparison.
Divestment from Qatar would mean universities rejecting Qatari financial investments, shutting down their satellite campuses in Qatar, and ending grants or partnerships funded by the Qatari government. Such financial entanglements represent a conflict of interest, given Qatar’s openly sponsoring terrorism, for both America and all of Academia. Higher education is meant to be an open and collaborative environment, something that state sponsored terrorism directly threatens. Decisions to divest should not be made lightly, but if anyone is deserving of such action, it’s Qatar.
To start, if any state merits the label of “genocidal” or “terrorist,” Qatar is an exponentially stronger candidate than Israel. Not only has Qatar funded Hamas, they also broadcast Hamas’ rhetoric on their state-run media channel. Qatar has ensured that Hamas’ political bureau lives in luxury, housing them for nearly a decade in one of the country’s finest hotels. Qatar has been accused of similarly supporting terrorist organizations like the Islamic State, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al-Qaeda.
Moreover, Qatar has strong bilateral ties with Iran, one of the United States’ most dangerous and powerful geopolitical rivals. For years, Iran has repeatedly directed their proxies to attack American troops stationed in the area, and the country is now taking an extremely aggressive stance against Israel — all while trying to develop a nuclear bomb and funding destructive, antisemitic campus protests in the U.S.. Although Qatar makes vague gestures towards curbing Iran’s ambitions, it’s abundantly clear whose side they are really on.
Qatar’s treatment of their own citizens is no better. The country has no regard for women’s rights and no conception of freedom of expression. Their monarch, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, wields power with a level of non-accountability a Medieval King could only dream of. Qatar tortures people simply for being LGBTQ+, and their 2022 World Cup experience was built on the backs of slave labor.
Qatar’s influence on U.S. higher education isn’t just financial; it’s ideological. Qatar uses their investments to promote perspectives that support their illiberal regime–––and sometimes blatantly support terrorism–––which weakens support for liberal values, including the ideals of liberal education.
Qatari investments might help university budgets, but is that financial support worth betraying our ideals? For all our pride in values like diversity, equity, and inclusion, academia seems perfectly willing to ignore grievous violations of those principles as long as the perpetrators have enough money.
This is glaringly hypocritical. The same Western universities re-title buildings named after slave owners while accepting funds from a nation built and upheld on modern slavery. Institutions protest for women’s rights while being funded by a regime that denies women basic freedoms and openly subjugates them to men. This flagrant double standard is not merely deeply hypocritical, but also undermines public trust in higher education.
It’s not as if American universities haven’t responded to geopolitical threats before. Only five years ago, there were more than 100 of China’s state-sponsored Confucius Institutes at American universities. Now, there are fewer than six. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, many American universities cut ties with their pro-Kremlin Russian partners. When Iran underwent the Islamic Revolution in 1979, many American universities ended long standing arrangements. Qatar shouldn’t be treated differently.
Higher education’s sacred trust is developing students into tomorrow’s leaders, people willing and able to champion the best interests of their communities. Accepting money from a regime like Qatar, which fundamentally and brutally opposes the values we claim to hold dear, egregiously violates that trust, devaluing any research or advocacy coming from such institutions. Thus, to maintain higher education’s integrity, we need to re-evaluate our relationship with Qatar.
Such action need not necessitate an academic boycott. The free exchange of ideas through international academic collaboration is essential to academic freedom. However, accepting financial support from the Qatari regime is entirely different. Universities shouldn’t sever academic ties, but they must stop taking money–––whether in the form of research centers, campuses, or funded programs–––from a regime so fundamentally opposed to and dedicated to undermining Higher Education’s values.
This issue cannot remain confined to abstract discussions in administrative meetings — or even op-eds written by obnoxious young academics — but must become a priority for the entire higher education community. Universities must take a stand and ensure that their financial partnerships align with the ethical standards they promote. Our students’ futures — and the credibility of higher education — depend on it. In an era in which public trust in academia is lower than at any other time in recent history, that is credibility that our universities cannot afford to lose.
Aaron Pomerantz is a social psychologist and postdoctoral research fellow at Rice University’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders. His work has appeared at outlets like RealClear Education, Newsweek, and Current Psychology.
Garion Frankel is a Ph.D student in PK-12 educational leadership at Texas A&M University. His work has appeared in outlets like USA Today, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal.
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
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