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Cornell’s Links to Qatar are Under the Microscope

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The Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar Class of 2012. (Photo Via weill-cornell.edu)

In the uproar of the 50-day war that Hamas waged against Israel, Cornell University is receiving pressure to close down its Qatar medical campus, due to the financial support and ties the Arab country has with the terrorist group, Hamas.

The dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi Marvin Hier, has proclaimed it “outrageous” that the university is still operating in Qatar. Cornell Univesity is a prominant Ivy League institution in upstate New York. In 2002, the university partnered with the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a nonprofit organization started by the Qatari government, to open a branch in Qatar, its Cornell Weill Medical College.

The Jewish Week was told by Rabbi Hier, “What Cornell should say is, ‘We repudiate anyone who funds a terrorist organization.’”

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) called on Cornell along with other American universities, cultural institutions to “end or suspend their programs in Qatar.” ZOA went even further to ask the State Department to declare Qatar terrorist sponsoring state if it does not stop sending support to Hamas.

In a ZOA press release said, “Designation of Qatar as a state sponsor of terrorism would also enable Israeli and Arab victims of Hamas’ rocket attacks, executions and forced service as ‘human shields’ (or their surviving families) to sue Qatar in the United States and potentially recover some of the oil- and natural gas-rich nation’s assets.”

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, called upon Cornell to now, since that state is openly supporting terrorism, re-evaluate its association with Qatar.

“The Middle East is a very, very fluid place and things are continuously in flux from good to bad and bad to good,” he told The Jewish Week. “It is incumbent on universities to continuously examine and re-examine their host country to see whether the conditions, the promises, the environment has changed to the point where this is not a place where we want our students to mature. Qatar is at that point.”

In a statement, Cornell responded that it believes its presence in Qatar “is the best way to promote understanding.” It said its “collaborations across the globe” are part of a 150-year mission of “teaching, discovery and engagement” and that people who live in the Middle East deserve “access to top quality education, health care and life-enhancing technologies.”

Joel Malina, Cornell’s vice president for university relations, made a statement which said the university’s academic collaborations are decided “without regard to politics or religion.” The statement declared that Cornell is not part of the government government, is apolitical, and works with “academic and educational entities that share in our mission of helping communities and individuals to expand horizons and improve lives.”

“We are committed to fulfilling our agreements with the Qatar Foundation and our other global partners, while ensuring that we remain true to our core values as an institution focused on the betterment of humanity,” Malina added.

Political analysts point out that it is naïve to think the U.S. would make Qatar a state sponsor of terrorism; the U.S. works extensively with Qatar and their dealings are vital to American security. Recently the Washington Post reported that the American warplanes attacking ISIS troops in Iraq come mainly from three major American bases in the Persian Gulf, one of which is in Qatar, the al Udeid Air Base, and the other two bases are in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. In July, the U.S. also signed an $11 billion arms sale with Qatar. The arrangement calls for dozens of Apache helicopters, hundreds of Patriot missiles and anti-tank rockets, to be sold by the U.S. to Qatar.

Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Bar-Ilan University, said many people are kept from speaking out by Qatar’s wealth. “Silence has been bought and that is just a part of life,” he said. “If they were consistent morally and politically, they would have nothing to do with university operations in a country like Qatar. But everything has a price and this is the reality.”

Cornell had no additional comments at this time regarding the university’s financial relationship with Qatar.

Back in 2001 when the university revealed the plans to open the campus in Qatar, it said that the school was promised $750 million over 11 years by the Qatar Foundation. In return, Cornell agreed to grant their Qatar campus graduates the same diploma it awards graduates in the U.S.

The opening had controversy over fears that Israelis and Jewish students might not have an equal opportunity for an education there. Cornell eased the fears promising a non-discrimination clause was part of the agreement that established the campus. At that time Itmar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., supported the move and said Israel had normal diplomatic relations with Qatar.

His tune has greatly changed over the years; in an email on Tuesday, September 2nd, Rabinovich wrote, “Qatar 2014 is not Qatar 2001. At that time, there was an Israeli diplomatic mission in Qatar and Qatar played a much more positive role in the region, including with regard to Israel. It has since adopted a much more complex foreign policy. It still hosts a huge U.S. military base, but also plays games with Iran, supports the Muslim Brotherhood, and at the same time is not always negative on Israel. … They play complex games.”

In addition he said that instead of calling to “boycott or abandon” Qatar, Cornell and other Western institutions should “use their influence in order to support U.S. and Saudi efforts to bring Qatar back to the mainstream of Middle Eastern politics.”

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