Dissent: On Tyrannical Middle Eastern Regimes, the Editorial Board Wavers

In an editorial blasting Congress for looking into Harvard’s foreign funding sources without scrutinizing Trump’s benefactors, the Board makes the assertion that Harvard should accept foreign donations — as long as they come with no strings attached.

Such a viewpoint is not only deeply naive; it is morally inexcusable and reeks of the very hypocrisy the Board levies at Congress.

As such, I dissent.

Harvard has taken millions of dollars from countries with reprehensible human rights records, including Bangladesh, Qatar, and others. Does the Board truly believe Qatar sends Harvard money simply because of a benevolent urge to support academia and research in Cambridge?

It is not conspiratorial to say that repressive regimes are actively seeking to influence American universities. According to a former U.S. Director of National Intelligence, the Iranian government sought to inflame anti-Israel protests in the United States in the aftermath of Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Oct. 7; clerics in Iran have called demonstrations on college campuses “the export of the Islamic Revolution to America.”

At Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, endowed professorships are named after Khalid Bin Abdullah Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, a Saudi prince; Ziad Mohammed Ali Shawwaf, a Saudi diplomat; and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal (of which there are numerous).

Just two weeks ago, CMES held an event entitled An Ongoing Threat: Israel’s War on Lebanon, Past and Present – an absurdly distorted description of the war that started when Hezbollah, unprovoked, began launching missiles at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023 (Former University President Lawrence H. Summers went so far as to call the talk potentially antisemitic).

It is impossible to establish a causal link between cash from the Middle East and an intense anti-Israel bent at CMES, but the influx certainly begs the question.

Regardless of whether or not donations come with the implication of influence, accepting money from oppressive regimes is still morally dubious. Even if we were to assume, for example, Egypt’s intentions in sending money to Harvard are innocuous – perhaps it merely seeks to promote its standing in the West – I would nonetheless be alarmed by the Board’s passivity. Egypt has been called “one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists.” As budding journalists ourselves, we should seriously consider whether we want Harvard’s name anywhere near those of the world’s worst oppressors.

And finally, I would be remiss to refrain from calling out the Board’s hypocrisy considering its 2022 endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel. At Harvard, much of Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine’s campaign centers on tens of thousands of dollars invested by the Harvard Management Company in companies linked to the Israeli military (a tiny proportion of Harvard’s multibillion dollar endowment). They also take issue with investments such as Booking Holdings, an online travel agency, because of its 24 listings in the West Bank (out of some 28 million worldwide). Presumably, the Board understands Harvard’s investments do not single handedly prop up the State of Israel. Instead, it is simply because they seem to view any association with Israel as inherently unethical.

To adopt such an approach on Israel while remaining all but blasé on tyrannical Islamist regimes is blatant hypocrisy.

Charles M. Covit ’27, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a double concentrator in Economics and Modern Middle Eastern Studies in Lowell House.

Dissenting Opinions: Occasionally, The Crimson Editorial Board is divided about the opinion we express in a staff editorial. In these cases, dissenting board members have the opportunity to express their opposition to staff opinion.