How Qatari Funding is Shaping US and Israeli Schools and Academia

Dr. Charles Small, previously head of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), after the closure of the center, launched a series of investigations that eventually uncovered hidden financial connections between Qatari entities and institutions across the United States, Europe, and Israel. 

“In a short time, we identified over $3 billion in donations to Yale and other universities that were not properly reported as required by law,” Small said. In 2019, he presented his findings to senior officials in Washington, prompting a federal investigation that exposed extensive undisclosed foreign funding. 

Since then, Small, along with a team of 10 researchers and an Israeli forensic accounting firm specializing in global financial investigations, deepened their inquiry. 

Their research led to a series of reports detailing the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatari funding on academic content, the promotion of anti-democratic and anti-Israel agendas, and even antisemitic rhetoric in higher education. 

Their latest report, released recently, highlights a previously overlooked dimension: Qatari involvement in U.S. elementary and secondary education (K-12). “The fact that Qatar—a country with fewer than 350,000 citizens—donates more money to American universities, civil society organizations, and cultural institutions than any other nation in the world is deeply troubling,” he said.  (YNet/VFI News)

“And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.” - Exodus 23:8