Do you want your education to be funded by the same source that funds Hamas?
Whatever your opinions are on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I’m willing to bet the answer is no. But why even ask this question? Cornell University and Hamas have such vastly different missions. Surely, there can be no connection between “any person, any study” and “our struggle against the Jews.”
Yet, on Jan. 21, 2026, the Cornell Daily Sun reported that Cornell University received $2.3 billion from the State of Qatar in 2025, 26 times as much as from the next-largest contributor, India. This revelation surprised many, including the popular Instagram account “Cornellians Only.” However, the only real surprise is that anyone is surprised at all.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Education found that Cornell had failed to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars in Qatari funding. The question here is simple: What does Cornell have to hide?
When Cornell, or any major university, even accepts contributions from the same country that has funneled over $1.8 billion to Hamas, tortures its LGBTQ+ communities and killed thousands of foreign workers in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, serious ethical questions arise. When the university fails to disclose those donations, those questions are amplified. And when donations not only continue but increase after all these revelations, one can only ask, ‘What the hell is going on?’
Qatar’s elites would have you believe that this funding simply relates to Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Cornell’s medical campus in Ar-Rayyan. Nasser Al-Khori, a key player in the “Legacy and Social Impact” of the 2022 World Cup, left a comment accusing Cornellians Only of “misleading” their followers, claiming that the money was only for a mutually beneficial partnership between Cornell and Qatar. Yet, this is the same Qatar that claims the aid it sent to Gaza was not meant for Hamas, but to help the people of Gaza. So, why should we now believe them when they tell us why they are giving Cornell money?
Cornell’s own spokesperson failed to clarify whether Qatar’s donations would actually go toward WCM-Q’s budget. But let’s assume, for a moment, that all this money is going toward exactly what the relevant parties claim it is. Let’s assume the money is actually going to promote medical research and advancement at WCM-Q. Even with that assumption, I have trouble believing that care and innovation will be accessible to those who need it most.
According to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, similar funding projects at Texas A&M resulted in Qatar being “granted unprecedented control over academic research and standards, faculty, students, curriculum, intellectual property and budgets at Texas A&M.” This agreement between Qatar and Texas A&M was not transparent in any sense of the word. Given that Cornell has an even greater financial relationship with Qatar than Texas A&M, I can only worry that Cornell and Qatar have a similar agreement.
I do not believe that Cornell has a relationship with Qatar because it funds Hamas or tortures gay communities. I think Cornell genuinely believes that the work being done is for the greater good of humanity. However, the fact remains that such a view is incredibly short-sighted. Money buys influence, whether or not the ones being influenced realize it. As such, the facts are clear: Cornell must sever its relationship with the State of Qatar.
Will a regime that crushes dissent really allow its medical research to benefit all of humanity? Are we really to believe that Qatar will allow the research it funds to help the victims of Hamas, the terrorist organization it funds? Are we really to believe that Qatar will give the tortured members of the LBGTQ+ community access to the treatments developed there? Are we really to believe that whatever money Qatar makes from selling the medicine invented there will be used to compensate the workers they exploited?
Cornell has an opportunity to truly think about these questions. However, opportunities eventually expire. At what point will we become so dependent on Qatari money that they will leverage that money to tell us whether or not we can have victims of Hamas’ terror on campus, whether we can provide support to LGBTQ+ students or whether the School of Industrial Labor Relations can teach about the conditions faced by migrant workers in Qatar? It will be difficult to answer these questions today, but we may not even be able to do so in the future. I love Cornell deeply and refuse to see it fall into the hands of tyrants.
Ezra Galperin '27 is an Opinion Columnist and a Government and Jewish Studies student in the College of Arts and Sciences. His fortnightly column, Ezra's Cornell, discusses campus politics and how they are affected by the wider political climate. He can be reached at egalperin@cornellsun.com.
