Qatar’s ties to US universities scrutinised amid rise in antisemitism

Qatar’s ties to US universities scrutinised amid rise in antisemitism

The congressional Republicans who spearheaded investigations into antisemitism on US college campuses are turning their focus on the Qatari government, one of the largest donors to American universities over the past decade.

The line of inquiry, led by Republicans on the US House’s education committee, focuses on suggestions among conservative activists that Qatari funding has influenced attitudes towards Israel at elite US universities, which have come under intense scrutiny since Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

Virginia Foxx, the conservative North Carolina Republican who chairs the committee, has asked three Ivy League schools — Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia — to disclose any Qatari donations since January 2021. 

Foxx has also requested information about enrolment data for Jewish students and various other details about the universities’ responses to antisemitic incidents.

Qatar is the only nation mentioned in the inquiries about funding from “foreign sources”. A person close to the committee said the goal was to determine “what is innocuous and what is bleeding into what’s happening on campus”.

The focus on Qatar comes amid a campaign by activists and alumni donors to scrutinise elite American universities after a surge of anti-Israel protests following the October 7 attacks and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza — including