Several Ivy League schools, including Harvard University, have accepted millions of dollars in donations from foundations and donors located in the “State of Palestine,” often to fund the education of Palestinian students at American colleges, according to a new report.
The elite schools took $10 million from 2017 to 2023 from entities within the “State of Palestine,” according to the analysis by Open the Books, a nonprofit dedicated to revealing government spending.
Brown University, Harvard University and non-Ivy Indiana University of Pennsylvania are among the schools to accept funding from donors located in the nation that technically doesn’t exist, at least by UN standards.
The “State of Palestine” is not a recognized entity by the United Nations or the US — though some 140 countries do officially recognize it.
Brown University in February 2020 received a $643,000 gift from a foundation located within the “State of Palestine” to create a professorship in Palestinian Studies as part of the college’s Middle East Studies program, according to federal disclosures reviewed by Open the Books.
Though the financial filing does not disclose the donor’s name, Brown previously said the money was gifted by the Munib and Angela Masri Foundation based in the West Bank.
Nine different donors — including multiple Brown alumni and the foundation — came together to fund the “Mahmoud Darwish Professorship in Palestinian Studies,” according to a 2020 press release.
Meanwhile, Harvard took in $1.6 million from donors within the “State of Palestine” and the Indiana University of Pennsylvania received $6.4 million from entities within the “State of Palestine” and another $900,000 from a donor from “Palestinian Territory, Occupied,” according to the review of the financial disclosure documents.
The donors are not identified in the filings. Harvard previously said that monies it received from Palestinian donors in 2017, 2018 and 2019 did not come from the Palestinian Authority, though the Ivy League would not disclose the donor names in a 2020 news report.
Most of the money helped pay for Palestinian students from the occupied territories to receive an education at American universities, according to the filings.
They were often reported as “payment of tuition and fees for students from Palestine. Funds are also utilized to pay for educational-related expenses incurred by the university for these students through their enrollment in this program,” the documents state, according to Open the Books.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania received at least $2.3 million from the West Bank-based Arab American University to cover the tuition and other expenses for Palestinian students attending the US college, according to the same 2020 report.
In addition to the funding, the US universities have had ongoing relationships with universities in the West Bank.
Brown’s inaugural professor of Palestinian Studies, Beshara Doumani, was granted permission to simultaneously serve as the president of Birzeit University in the West Bank for two years.
The Palestinian university was criticized after its Union of Professors and Employees penned an op-ed days after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack, stating, “2023 will be recorded historically as the year that Palestinians stood boldly in the face of colonial fascism and screamed in defense of their homes, humanity, and lives.”
For its part, Indiana University of Pennsylvania offers business Ph.D. and master’s programs in partnership with Arab American University.
“IUP has received instructional agreement income for providing educational programs at various international locations, including one in Palestine, since 2014,” a spokesperson for the university told Open the Books.
