Brown Univ Ends Anti-Israel High School Education Program After Report Exposes Ties to Qatar

Brown Univ Ends Anti-Israel High School Education Program After Report Exposes Ties to Qatar

Last month, in a little-reported turn of events, Brown University ended its long-running sponsorship of a high school history program after a watchdog group revealed the curriculum’s ties to Qatar. The school’s decision to shutter the program comes amid heightened scrutiny of foreign influence peddling in higher education. And it comes amid recent revelations that America’s universities, emboldened by a willfully blind Biden administration, have been pocketing billions of dollars from countries like Qatar that are hostile to Western values.

For over 35 years, Brown’s Choice’s Program was a staple in U.S. high school classrooms. Brown touted its award-winning, “high-quality, carefully researched” teaching materials as telling “an inclusive, responsible history.”

The program’s vaunted inclusivity didn’t extend to the Jewish state, however. A recent investigation by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy found that Brown received undisclosed foreign funding to systematically distort historical facts to delegitimize Israel.

The Brown curriculum taught millions of students across all 50 states that Israel is a “settler-oppressor” and an “apartheid state,” reinforcing a narrative that the Jewish homeland was created out of land belonging to others, according to the report, which produced several key findings:

• Systematic Anti-Israel Bias – Over multiple editions, the Choices Program has erased key historical facts, distorted maps, and rewritten history to cast Israel in a negative light.
• Foreign Interference in U.S. Education – Qatar Foundation International (QFI) has covertly shaped the Choices Program curriculum, influencing how over one million students learn about the Middle East.
• Lack of Transparency & Parental Awareness – Schools using the curriculum are not informed of content changes. Parents and school boards have no oversight, and the Choices Program’s financial and legal structure remains alarmingly opaque.
• Possible Federal Law Violations – Brown University may have failed to disclose millions in foreign funding, violating the Higher Education Act, which requires institutions to report foreign donations exceeding $250,000.

“The Choices Program simply erased Jews and Christians from the Middle East,” said Dr. Charles Asher Small, founder and executive director of ISGAP. I spoke with him last week about the group’s research and Brown’s subsequent decision to end the Choices Program.

In the past, Brown vigorously pushed back against accusations of antisemitism in its program: It wasn’t anti-Israel, they claimed, it was just “appropriately inclusive of a range viewpoints.”

Notwithstanding these mealymouthed protests, shortly after ISGAP released its report, Brown announced it would cut ties with the Choices Program due to “financial and staffing challenges.”

Budget Woes or Transparency Fears?

Brown’s cancellation of the Choices Program doesn’t end the inquiry into whether the university was taking money from Qatar, however. In fact, it raises more questions about the university’s lack of transparency.

Brown insists it only received funds from the Qatar Foundation, not the Qatari regime. But, ISGAP says that’s a bogus distinction. The Qatar Foundation is chaired by the Emir of Qatar and operates as a state-controlled entity:

Brown claims it only received funds from the Qatar Foundation, not the Qatari regime.
ISGAP’s research shows this distinction is misleading. The Qatar Foundation is chaired by the Emir of Qatar and operates as a state-controlled entity.

— ISGAP (@ISGAP) April 24, 2025

Brown’s claim that it was forced to close the program due to budget constraints is even more suspect when you consider the reactions of faculty and staff. They describe being “blindsided” and “shocked” by the school’s decision to end “Choices”—a program that had never depended on funding from Brown in the first place, The Brown Herald reports:

Associate Professor of History Daniel Rodriguez, who sits on the Choices Advisory Board, told the paper that the Choices Program “has never once taken a penny from Brown University, but has been self-funding throughout the whole process.” He explained that when the program’s expenses have exceeded revenues, Choices has historically dipped into reserve funds accumulated during years with excess revenue. [emphasis added.]

The Herald said Brown did not respond to questions about the program’s reliance on University funds, instead reiterating that its decision was “exclusively financial.”

Now, however, Brown and other universities will have to answer these pesky questions. On April 23, the President issued an Executive Order requiring schools to fully disclose foreign donations. The White House directive revives federal reporting requirements that were willfully neglected under Biden.

Biden’s lapsed oversight coincides with a massive surge in foreign funding to universities during his term, as revealed in a recent report from the Network Contagion Research Institute:

🚨BREAKING: A new report from @ncri_io uncovers a MASSIVE surge in foreign funding to universities under Biden, and a potential pipeline of foreign cash and public funds directly promoting radicalization and terrorism on U.S. campuses. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/T23KYoNdds

— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) April 28, 2025

The NCRI report shared exclusively with The Free Press found that foreign donors gave as much to universities in the last four years as they did in the previous 40. And the single biggest donor of them all: Qatar, at 6.3 billion, a third (2 billion) coming between 2021 and 2024.

Under the new EO, schools that take foreign donations will have to do what ISGAP says Brown failed to do: disclose the true source and purpose of foreign donations. If they don’t, they risk losing federal funding.

Brown is already staring down the barrel at federal funding cuts. The school’s decision to ditch the Choices Program followed news of the government’s plans to freeze $510 million over the school’s failure to address campus antisemitism, as well as its DEI policies.

For now, Brown may run by closing down the Choices Program, but it can no longer hide the hostile foreign sources funding it. The program pushes exactly the kind of radical, violent ideology the President’s order is meant to root out: “This is not neutral education,” ISGAP concluded. “It’s ideological programming, funded by a regime with documented ties to Hamas, the Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood.”

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