Georgetown University in Qatar to Host Amnesty International Sec-Gen for Discussion About "Israeli Genocide"
The February 2nd event comes roughly five months after the campus hosted an alleged senior Hamas official
February 2, 2025, Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) will host Dr. Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, for an event discussing Amnesty’s latest report, "'You Feel Like You Are Subhuman': Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza." The discussion, moderated by Dean Safwan Masri, will take place in Doha and focus on the report’s flawed findings, which accuse Israel of genocide—an allegation that has been thoroughly debunked. The event is part of GU-Q’s broader trend of providing a platform for anti-Israel rhetoric, aligning with Amnesty’s history of biased reports and its attempts to delegitimize Israel while downplaying Hamas’s atrocities. The university’s deep ties to Qatar, a major terror financier, further highlight its complicity in promoting extremist narratives.
Georgetown in Qatar’s History of Embracing Extremist Rhetoric
GU-Q has a longstanding pattern of platforming speakers and organizations that demonize Israel while providing cover for Hamas and other terrorist entities. According to Liel Leibovitz, writing in City Journal, Georgetown has become a haven for radical academic figures.
Leibovitz notes that the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), which in 2022 officially endorsed the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, moved its headquarters to Georgetown. MESA has defended professors who glorified the Hamas October 7 massacre and called it "awesome." Furthermore, Georgetown appointed Nader Hashemi, a professor who has spread anti-Israel conspiracy theories, to head its Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, despite his prior controversial remarks about Israeli intelligence orchestrating attacks.
GU-Q’s connections with Qatar, a key financier of Hamas, raise further concerns about the university's alignment. Qatar has hosted Hamas leaders responsible for orchestrating attacks against Israeli civilians, including the October 7 massacre. Georgetown and its Qatar campus have received over $870 million from Qatar since opening its Doha campus.
Amnesty International’s Genocide Inversion
Amnesty International’s December 2024 report alleging that Israel is committing a “genocide” fits into the group’s broader pattern of delegitimizing the Jewish state while whitewashing Hamas's documented atrocities. As detailed in NGO Monitor’s analysis of the report, Amnesty has a history of manipulating facts to portray Israel as an aggressor, using legal warfare to push for sanctions against Israel, and engaging in Holocaust inversion by falsely accusing Israel of genocide while ignoring Hamas’ explicit calls for exterminating Jews.
Moreover, former U.S. prosecutors specializing in Nazi war crimes have rejected such claims, stating that "any fair review of the verifiable, publicly available facts shows that the accusation of genocide against Israel is false and indeed outrageous."
Georgetown’s "Reimagining Palestine" Conference: A Parade of Extremists
Georgetown University in Qatar further cemented its status as a hub for anti-Israel extremism when it hosted the "Reimagining Palestine" conference in Doha from September 20-22, 2024. According to Jessica Costescu of the Washington Free Beacon, the event featured Shawan Jabarin, an alleged senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US-designated terrorist organization; Wadah Khanfar, an alleged former Hamas leader in Sudan who praised the October 7 massacre as a "great achievement;" Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a speaker who glorified terrorists and called an assassination mastermind a "hero;" Tareq Baconi, who described Hamas’s mass murder as "inevitable" anti-colonial violence rather than terrorism; and Nader Hashemi, who spread pro-Iran propaganda and falsely accused Israel’s Mossad of orchestrating the attack on Salman Rushdie.
Speaking of the PFLP’s Shawan Jabarin, he has himself been photographed at events with Ms. Callamard.
A Deficient Approach to Antisemitism on Campus
According to a 2024 assessment of Georgetown University by the ADL, the institution earned a D grade in handling antisemitism. The report highlighted that there were multiple reports of swastika vandalism on campus between 2022 and 2023. Furthermore, in the aftermath of Hamas terrorist attacks, the school’s Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter published a statement condoning the violence, claiming they were part of a legitimate "resistance against oppression," faculty statements rejecting Jewish ties to Israel without mentioning Hamas or its atrocities, and pro-Hamas student protests, including calls for divestment from Israel and disruptions of events featuring Israeli speakers.