Northwestern President’s Exit Is Linked to “Terrorist-Harboring Qatar”
WSJ also takes Hamas host’s cash
The announcement today by the president of Northwestern University, Michael Schill, that he’d resign after only three years makes him only the latest university president to step down after botching the response to antisemitism on campus and to related congressional hearings. Harvard President Claudine Gay, Columbia President Minouche Shafik and interim president Katrina Armstrong, and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill also failed to survive.
The House Committee on Education and Workforce directly linked Schill’s resignation to his performance at a May 2024 hearing, where, the committee’s press release issued today said, “Schill also refused to state whether it’s a good idea for Northwestern to partner with a government that harbors Hamas and Iranian operatives who fund terrorism.”
I went back and checked, and it’s clear that the “government” the House committee is referring to is that of Qatar.
In the committee meeting, Rep. Burgess Owens, Republican of Utah, brought as a visual aid a giant $600 million check from Qatar payable to Northwestern.
A May 23, 2024 press release from Owens was headlined, “Owens Grills Northwestern President Over Financial Ties to Terrorist-Harboring Qatar.”
That release helpfully provides a transcript of the portion of the hearing devoted to Northwestern’s ties to Qatar and to the Qatar owned and operated Al-Jazeera network:
Rep. Owens: “Mr. Schill, how much money has Northwestern University received from Qatari sources? Including Qatar connected entities at the Qatar Foundation?
President Schill: “The amount that we have received from the Qatar Foundation to fund our campus in Qatar. All of the resources that we have got – and there’s been a lot—”
Rep. Owens: “I’m looking for short answers. I only have about three minutes left. So, How much?”
President Schill: “I don’t have the dollar number, you have a check.”
Rep. Owens: “Let’s say between $500 and $700 million.”
President Schill: “Every dollar has gone to the operation of the campus or the management of the campus.”
Rep. Owens: “We’d like to have a complete, transparent accounting to just how much exactly is coming from this. Are you aware this is the same Qatar government that has partnered with—that currently harbors the leaders of Hamas and are estimated to have given the terrorist organization of Hamas about $1.8 billion? Are you aware of that?”
President Schill: “They are harboring those leaders with the knowledge—”
Rep. Owens: “Yes or no, are you aware that 1.8 billion has been given to Hamas from Qatar?”
President Schill: “This is not my area of expertise.”
Rep. Owens: “Are you aware that the Iranian officials travel in and out of Doha to meet with Hamas?”
President Schill: “This is not in my area of expertise.”
Rep. Owens: “If this was true, do you think it would be a good idea for the University of Northwestern to partner with a government that harbors terrorists, Hamas and Iranian operatives who fund terrorism? Yes or no?”
President Schill: “I’m not going to engage in yes or no answers.”
Rep. Owens: “Okay. So obviously you don’t have a problem with that.”
Rep. Owens concluded his testimony by asking President Schill about the connection between Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and the media outlet Al Jazeera, a partnership that has been denounced by Northwestern alumni affiliated organizations for its role in spreading Hamas propaganda following the October 7th attack on Israel.
Rep. Owens: “Northwestern’s school of journalism has a formal partnership with a Qatar media outlet Al Jazeera. Did you know that?”
President Schill: “I, in fact, just found out about that last week.”
Rep. Owens: “Let me make you aware of it then, because Al Jazeera – because of their pro-Hamas reporting – the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, asked the Qatar Prime Minister to tone down Al Jazeera’s anti-Israel incitement. Also, it was Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt that have blocked Al-Jazeera because they are a pro-Hamas mouthpiece. My understanding is that you have a contract with the Qatar Foundation that expires at the end of the 2027-2028 academic year. Now that you know about Qatar, are you going to still renew that contract?
President Schill: “The review of that contract is being done by the Provost Office—”
Rep. Owens: “Al Jazeera is a mouthpiece for Hamas. Are you willing to end that partnership?”
President Schill: “The decision with respect to the Qatar campus is ultimately the Board of Trustees, and I actually am concerned by the agreement that you’re talking about with Al Jazeera, and we are going to look into it.”
Qatar signed a 7-month, $30,000 a month consulting agreement effective June 30, 2025, with “The Book of Virtues” and “The Moral Compass” author William Bennett, who served as education secretary during the Reagan administration. The agreement says Bennett “will make efforts to publicize the fact that Qatari higher education efforts do not support radical Islamicist movements or positions, and his engaging in publicized efforts—potentially including communications to U.S. political office holders—would help dispel contrary notions.”
A new report released today by Mitchell Bard of the Jewish Virtual Library on “Arab Funding of American Universities: Donors, Recipients, and Impact” includes extensive material about Qatar and Northwestern. “It is difficult to understand why a university celebrated for its journalism program would align itself with a regime that suppresses free expression and bankrolls a media network notorious for tendentious reporting and entrenched anti-Israel and anti-American bias,” the report says. “Despite the red flags, Northwestern has given no indication of reconsidering its Qatar partnership. The university remains under contract to operate NU-Q through at least 2028.”
Meanwhile, open up today’s print Wall Street Journal, and the “Journal Reports” special section on Artificial Intelligence carries a full page ad urging companies to “make your next move to Media City Qatar” and claiming, falsely, that ‘Media City Qatar is fast becoming a hub for global media, where talent, technology and creativity come together to shape what’s next.”
Good luck attracting talent and creativity to a country that criminalizes homosexuality and that is so hostile to Israel and Jews that it hosts the Hamas terrorist organization. An August 21 Wall Street Journal opinion piece by James Kirchick accurately described Qatar as “a theocratic monarchy that is Hamas’s main financial and diplomatic sponsor.” My guess is that the Journal readers are too shrewd to be fooled by Qatar’s propaganda, but it is interesting that U.S. law required Bennett to disclose publicly the payments from Qatar, while news organizations such as the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg can accept advertising and event partnership sponsorship agreements without any requirement of public disclosure. Perhaps it’d run afoul of the First Amendment, or perhaps the appearance of the ad in public counts as its own disclosure.
My own preferred way to fix these issues is not to prevent American universities from doing business in Qatar or American newspapers from doing business with Qatar, but for Qatar to stop hosting Hamas and stop inciting anti-American and anti-Israel hate with Al Jazeera. If either Northwestern or the Wall Street Journal are looking for clarity on these issues, Rep. Burgess Owens, Republican of Utah, would be a fine person from whom to seek counsel. If President Schill had taken Owens’s concerns more seriously, maybe Schill wouldn’t have had to resign.
Nor is it just Rep. Owens who grasps Qatar’s significance and malevolence. An email today from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the bipartisan and mainstream U.S. pro-Israel lobby, says, “The United States must increase the pressure on Hamas and its sponsors in Qatar, Turkey and Iran to release all the hostages.”
Schill’s exit is a caution, too, for President Trump. It’s not only university presidents whose support can collapse when they mishandle the question of whether, as Owens put it, “it would be a good idea…to partner with a government that harbors Hamas and Iranian operatives who fund terrorism.”
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