American campuses in Doha and Al Jazeera have been subjected to a major disinformation campaign since Qatar began a pivotal role in mediating between Israel and Hamas from the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) has ended its collaboration with Al Jazeera following Republicans’ calls to do so based on uncorroborated allegations against the Doha-based media network, a source privy to the matter confirmed to Doha News.
A spokesperson from the university also previously confirmed the development to its main campus’s newspaper in the United States, The Daily Northwestern, on Thursday.
This came after Campus Reform, a conservative American watchdog on college campuses, said it learned about the severance of ties between NU-Q and Al Jazeera in July, also citing a Northwestern spokesperson.
NU-Q and Al Jazeera have yet to publicly comment on the reports.
The Illinois university had established its Qatar campus in 2008 at Education City, offering undergraduate education in journalism and communication. In 2013, NU-Q and Al Jazeera inked a memorandum of understanding to “facilitate collaboration and knowledge transfer” between both entities.
In May, Burgess Owens, Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee Chairman, questioned Northwestern’s President, Michael Schill, about NU-Q’s ties with Al Jazeera at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing.
Owens, also a Republican U.S. representative for Utah’s 4th congressional district, echoed baseless allegations during the hearing about Al Jazeera being a so-called mouthpiece of Hamas.
Meanwhile, reports last year said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked Qatar to “tone down” its coverage on Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in what has been seen as an attempt to shield America’s ally from accountability.
Anti-Qatar campaign
American campuses in Doha and Al Jazeera have been subjected to a major disinformation campaign since Qatar assumed a pivotal role in mediating between Israel and Hamas since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
This came despite Qatar securing the release of 109 captives from Hamas under a deal it mediated alongside Egypt in November last year.
The anti-Al Jazeera campaign also emerged as it covered the horrors on the ground in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s genocidal war that has killed over 42,000 people—although the health ministry’s figure is an undercount of the actual death toll with thousands still missing.
In response to Al Jazeera’s coverage of Israeli violations and occupation policies against Palestinians, Israel has targeted and killed the network’s journalists, offices and their families on several occasions.
The latest such attack was seen on Wednesday when Israeli occupation forces deliberately shot Al Jazeera’s cameraman Fadi Al-Wahidi while he covered ongoing attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip.
Al-Wahidi is currently paralysed without access to adequate medical treatment due to Israel’s complete siege on the Gaza Strip and non-stop attacks.
On September 22, Israeli occupation forces raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and ordered it to shut down for 45 days.
The raid came four months after the Israeli government shut down Al Jazeera’s office in Jerusalem and banned it from broadcasting for an initial period of 45 days, which it has since renewed several times.
The attacks on Al Jazeera also fall under a wider pattern of the targeting of the press by Israel. Since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip, Israel has killed 176 journalists.
Meanwhile, American campuses in Doha were at the centre of unfounded allegations and a major disinformation campaign over the past year.
This was highlighted when Texas A&M University’s Board of Regents in February decided to close its campus in Doha by the year 2028.
The university’s board had voted to shut down Texas A&M at Qatar (TAMUQ) over what the Board of Regents Chair, Bill Mahomes, cited as “heightened instability in the Middle East” following an assessment of the regional situation in late 2023.
The abrupt decision by Texas A&M to shut down its campus in Doha caused anger in Washington, prompting the U.S. ambassador to Qatar Timmy Davis to issue a statement expressing his disappointment in the university’s move.
