‘Disinformation campaign’ behind Texas A&M closure of Doha campus: Qatar Foundation

A sophisticated, months-long “disinformation campaign” is behind Texas A&M University’s decision on Thursday to close its Doha campus, Qatar Foundation has in a statement on Friday. 

Texas A&M University board voted 7-1 in favor of ending the contract with the foundation, effectively winding down its Doha campus over the next four years.

Following the vote, the university board said it had reevaluated its decades-long presence in Qatar “due to heightened instability in the Middle East".

The foundation slammed the vote in a statement, saying that the university was “influenced by a disinformation campaign aimed at harming the interests” of the foundation.

“It is disturbing that this disinformation has become the determining factor in the decision and that it has been allowed to override the core principles of education and knowledge, with no consideration to the significant positive impact that this partnership has brought for both Qatar and the US,” the statement said.

“It is deeply disappointing that a globally respected academic institution like Texas A&M University has fallen victim to such a campaign and allowed politics to infiltrate its decision-making processes.

“At no point did the board attempt to seek out the truth from Qatar Foundation before making this misguided decision.”

Following the start of Israel's war on Gaza, pro-Israel think tanks in Washington have started to raise concerns over the rights of the Qatari government to defence and nuclear technologies that were being developed at the Doha campus of Texas A&M University. 

The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, which markets itself as “dedicated to the academic study of antisemitism,” sent a letter to US officials in January warning of the “national security threat” posed by the campus and detailing a “disturbing relationship between Qatar and Texas A&M University".