The Qatar Connection Unmasked: One Student’s Fight to Prove Foreign Billions Bought Antisemitism at Carnegie Mellon
Israeli-American student Yael Kanaan takes on the academic giant as a federal judge rules that massive Qatari funding may be the "source" of institutional hostility toward Jewish students.
In a legal move that has sent shockwaves through the American ivory tower, a federal court has pulled back the curtain on the influence of foreign money in higher education. Yael Kanaan, a 25-year-old Israeli-American architecture student, is suing Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), alleging a systemic culture of antisemitism that was not just tolerated, but seemingly incentivized by the university’s massive financial ties to Qatar.
"Why Are Jews Justifiably Hated?"
The details of the lawsuit are harrowing. Kanaan alleges that from the moment she identified as Israeli-Jewish, she was targeted by senior faculty:
The Qatar Connection: A Billion-Dollar Question
For the first time, a court is looking at the "receipts." CMU has received over $1 billion from Qatari sources to fund its campus in Doha and operations in Pittsburgh.
Federal Judge Scott Hardy (a Trump appointee) rejected the university's attempt to keep its financial records secret. He noted that Qatar is a nation that "represses religious freedom and persecutes minorities," and ruled that their "financial generosity" may lead the university to act according to Qatari expectations.
The court has ordered CMU to surrender:
The lawsuit, supported by The Lawfare Project, aims to prove that when an American university accepts billions from a foreign regime, it isn't just "buying buildings", it might be selling out the safety of its Jewish students.