The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on U.S. universities to immediately review, disclose, and terminate research funding and other financial relationships with the Israeli military and Israeli weapons manufacturers following a new investigation alleging that millions of dollars in such funding have gone unreported or inconsistently reported.
A Drop Site investigation published reports that Israeli government defense agencies and Israeli weapons companies have provided millions of dollars to American universities through research grants, tuition payments, gifts, and other forms of support. According to the investigation, an analysis of university and state audit records identified more than $15 million in funding tied to the Israeli Ministry of Defense or Israeli defense manufacturers that was either unreported or inconsistently reported in databases intended to track foreign funding.
The report also identifies financial relationships involving Israeli defense companies, including Elbit Systems, and U.S. university research programs.
Read the Drop Site investigation: “Documents Reveal Trail of Unreported Millions From Israeli Military to U.S. Universities”
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
“American universities should not be functioning as research laboratories or financial partners for a foreign military engaged in an ongoing genocide. Universities have a responsibility to their students, faculty, researchers, and the American public to be transparent about who funds their research and where that research is ultimately being applied. If university research has been financed by a foreign military or weapons manufacturers, the public deserves to know about it, and university administrators must terminate such unethical and harmful relationships.”
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, [email protected]