Yale Accused of Flouting Federal Law, Failing to Disclose Millions in Qatari Funding

Qatar is the main Arab supporter of Hamas. It supplies the terror group with money and provides refuge to its leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh. And Qatar has for years been giving billions of dollars to American universities, in order to buy influence and to support academic programs and professors who will parrot the anti-Israel and pro-Hamas sentiments of their Qatari benefactor. And universities, most notably Yale, have been assiduous in trying to hide the amount of the money they receive from Qatar. More on this influence-buying scandal can be found here: “Yale Failed To Disclose Millions in Qatari Funding, Flouting Federal Law, Report Says,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, June 18, 2024:

Yale University did not disclose upwards of $15 million in contributions from Qatar—the Middle Eastern nation that provides funding and shelter to Hamas’s top leadership—in violation of federal reporting laws, according to an investigation by a watchdog group.

The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) determined that Yale received at least $15,925,711 from Qatari entities since 2012, but only publicly reported one grant worth $284,668, according to a study provided exclusively to the Washington Free Beacon. Yale’s failure to report this funding runs afoul of federal disclosure laws that require American universities to semi-annually list all foreign-funded gifts and contracts exceeding $250,000, ISGAP says. It is unclear if the Qatari funding and projects were structured in a way that allowed the school to omit them from federal reports.

“It is difficult to ascertain the exact amount” of Qatari money flowing to the university, “as Yale does not disclose all its foreign funding. This despite the fact that, by law and according to the ethics guides of most major universities, all agreements, contracts, [memoranda of understanding], and service-in-kind arrangements should be made public.” The watchdog group determined that many U.S. schools, including Yale, “remain in breach of these rules and regulations and are thus engaged in illegal activity. If the law were to be enforced properly, these universities would face serious consequences.”

Qatar has emerged in recent years as top donor to American schools, doling out $5.6 billion to 61 American schools since 2007, including Stanford University and Ivy Leagues such as Yale, Harvard University, and Cornell University, according to funding records reviewed by the Free Beacon in February. This money has allowed Qatar to peddle outsized influence at prestigious institutions that have seen an explosion of anti-Semitism on campus in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. Qatar, experts say, has helped mainstream anti-Israel propaganda on campus and uses its money to stifle criticism of Doha’s longstanding ties to Hamas, Iran, and other malign regimes.

ISGAP’s latest report “highlights financial activities that could be classified as criminal and could potentially form the basis for litigation against several U.S. universities, including Yale.” The watchdog group alleges that Yale and other schools are “defrauding the US Department of Education (DOE) by not fully disclosing the financial support they receive from Qatar.” Yale disputed the report’s findings in a statement.

“Yale disputes the conclusion of this report, which contains factual errors and misleading statements,” a spokesperson said. “The university is not aware of any funding from Qatar that has not been reported as required under federal law.”…

Let a congressional investigation of Yale’s receipt of Qatari money be taken as a warning to the other institutions that have been receiving money from Qatar. Such an investigation should be launched to discover the following:

1. Why did Yale report the receipt from Qatari entities of only one grant worth $284,668, instead of the true amount it received— $15,925,711 — which remained hidden?
2. What were the conditions, if any, that Qatar attached to its donations to Yale?
3. How was the Qatari money used? For example, was it spent to pay for chairs in Middle Eastern history held by faculty members sympathetic to the Arab point of view?
4. Did Qatari money pay for any junkets to the country by Yale administrators and faculty?
5. Did Qatari money pay for publications sympathetic to the Palestinians or hostile to Israel?
6. Did Qatari money pay for the expansion of the Middle East Studies program at Yale?

That’s a half-dozen questions, a starter set, that Congressmen should ask Yale administrators, and then of administrators at other schools — among them Harvard and Cornell — that have received large sums from Qatar. There are many more. Qatar has spent a colossal sum — $5.6 billion — since 2007 on donations to 61 American universities. It was clearly intent on buying influence in those universities, both among faculty and students, and subverting disinterested scholarship. This scandalous state of affairs needs a public airing. Go to it, Congress.