Northwestern University is parting ways with Al Jazeera after a multi-year partnership

According to school officials, over the summer Northwestern University quietly severed its ties with Qatari-run broadcaster Al Jazeera, described as the “voice of the Qatari regime.”

Northwestern's Qatar campus, funded by the state-run Qatar Foundation, partnered with Al Jazeera Media Network in 2013 to “enable students to interact regularly with leading media industry professionals.” The Doha campus, which includes a branch of Northwestern's journalism school, has been in operation since 2008.

“The agreement, which deepens the relationship between the two organizations, which have worked together since the founding of NU-Q, will allow professionals and aspiring journalists from both sides to benefit from the combined expertise of the two institutions through joint research and strategic study projects as well as training workshops to benefit from “a co-designed lecture series, internships and lecturer contributions as well as journalist exchange programs,” said a press release announcing the agreement at the time.

However, in a statement to the Sun, the school said it had terminated its memorandum of understanding, an agreement that previously linked the two organizations, back in July. Details of the relationship have since been removed from the university's website.

“Northwestern University-Qatar will continue to provide journalism students with robust opportunities for academic engagement through its strong relationships with many media outlets, strategic communications partners and other agency partners,” the school said.

Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism continues to offer a degree program on the Doha campus and offers American students the opportunity to spend a semester in Qatar.

The confirmation comes at a time when Northwestern students and alumni have made a concerted effort to pressure the school to cut ties with the controversial company, claiming the partnership violates Section 219 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act , which prohibits American companies from supporting foreign terrorist organizations.

According to a report by the Coalition Against Anti-Semitism at Northwestern, Al Jazeera “clearly violates basic standards of journalism by being the sanctioned and unique voice on behalf of its government, in clear alignment with Qatar's national priorities and interests.”

The report continued: “Northwestern should do this not only on moral grounds, because it supports the mouthpiece of Hamas, thereby endangering Israelis as victims of Hamas atrocities and the civilian population in Gaza, who are cynically used as human shields. “

The group also cited a study by the pro-Jewish organization Canary Mission that found that since 2013, more than two-thirds of Al Jazeera employees who spoke at Northwestern's Qatar campus “either expressed their support for terrorists.” expressed or demonized Israel.” or supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

Al Jazeera has long faced accusations of having close ties to Hamas, and several of its journalists have been accused of involvement in the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. Earlier this summer, Israel Defense Forces rescued three Israeli hostages who were being held at the home of Al Jazeera journalist Abdallah Aljamal in Nuseirat, Gaza.

Before the current flare-up in the Middle East, Al Jazeera was accused of having excessive sympathy for another terror group, al-Qaeda. The network was the preferred medium for Osama bin Laden's statements both before and after the September 11 attacks in America.

Further links between Al Jazeera and Hamas are detailed in a June letter from Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chairman Burgess Owens. Mr. Owens called on Northwestern President Michael Schill to end the school's partnership with Al Jazeera, a press outlet the congressman described as a “safe haven for Hamas supporters.”

“It is unacceptable that an American university that receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding annually would partner with organizations whose members are terrorists or whose reporting incites terror on behalf of Hamas,” he continued.

Mr. Schill later raised the partnership before Congress as part of a House committee investigation into the university's response to anti-Semitism.