Iran’s insidious influence on US universities
The impassioned chanted slogans of these groups leave little to the imagination with respect to their views on Israel and the Jewish people as a whole.
Since October 7, as Israel has prosecuted its war against Hamas, the region has experienced increasing instability as the assault on Israel spread to attacks by the Lebanese group, Hezbollah and the Yemenite group, Ansar Allah (commonly termed the Houthis).
Although the three groups have significant distinctions, for instance Hamas is Sunni while Hezbollah and Ansar Allah are Shia, the three groups share significant common ground, namely that they are fuelled by Islamist, anti-Zionist and antisemitic ideologies and, possibly much more importantly, they are proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. As such, Iran has been able to successfully wage a war on Israel and destabilise the region through its terror proxies.
Importantly, however, the effects of the war and the resulting instability have not been confined to the Middle East. Rather, a wave of antisemitism has swept across the West as far-left and far-right ideologies alike seek to delegitimise, not only Israel’s war against Hamas, but its very existence. Armed with flawed accusations of genocide, rallies with thousands of keffiyeh-clad protesters waving Palestinian flags have become a common sight in the West’s capital cities.
The impassioned chanted slogans of these groups leave little to the imagination with respect to their views on Israel and the Jewish people as a whole: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free”, “Globalise the Intifada” and “Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud! Jaish Muhammad Soufa Ya’oud” (which translates to ‘Khaybar Khaybar o Jews, the army of Muhammad will return!’).
As the far left has increasingly adopted such sentiments, the grounds of university campuses in the West have increasingly been occupied by encampments of these protesters, ultimately resulting in the bastions of open exchanges of ideas as places of suppression and antisemitic discrimination, with countless cases of Jewish students and their allies experiencing harassment and even violence. This begs an obvious question – what role, if any, have Iran and its allies played in the spread in the assault on our institutions of learning and why have the institutions themselves been so slow and negligent in their response?
While it is unsurprising that the Iranian regime is thrilled at the corruption of the West’s institutions rendering the spaces Zionist-free zones – evidenced by examples of the regime’s officials lauding their “courage” in standing up to Western imperialism – there has been limited evidence of direct involvement until recently. On July 9, Avril Haines, the United States’ director of national intelligence, issued a press release reiterating her May testimony before Congress that Iran has increased its concerted efforts to influence American domestic institutions and stated clearly: “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests and even providing financial support to protesters.”
While the importance of American intelligence agencies acknowledging this is significant, Iran’s insidious influence on American universities is not new. Rather, in recent years there has been a troubling trend of former officials of the Iranian regime assuming influential roles on the faculties of several of the largest American universities.
For instance, it should be a source of considerable discomfort that former Iranian diplomat, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, has served as a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist at Princeton University for 15 years, while another former Iranian diplomat, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, has taught as a professor at two major American universities in spite of Amnesty International alleging his involvement in covering up Iranian human rights abuses. The latter of these two has been the subject of an investigation by the US Department of Education for antisemitism, including teaching students positive views of Hamas.
Additionally, it is notable, when considering the abject failure of some of these universities to adequately respond to campus protests and the ostensible complicity of faculties in the rising tide of on-campus antisemitism, that Qatar has become one of the largest overseas donors to and investors in, American universities. In fact, a March Times of Israel article cited a 2022 study which found that between 2001 and 2021, Qatar contributed an overwhelming $US4.7 billion to American universities. Despite its close ties with the United States, Qatar maintains a close relationship with Iran and has been recognised as one of the most prevalent foreign supporters of Hamas, having substantially funded the terror organisation for several years and long having provided a safe haven for its political leaders, Khaled Mashaal and now-departed Ismail Haniyeh.
While this does not prove that the same is true of Australian university campuses and the ongoing protests seen therein, this does raise serious questions with respect to the funding and influence on protests here. Consequently, Australian politicians must be on alert regarding the geopolitical influence on protests here and consider the role of funding to universities and protests as provided by foreign “donors”. What, if any, legal restrictions should legislatures place on the ability of foreign groups and lobbyists to fund political activities here in Australia?
Harriet Warlow-Shill is the founding partner of Warlows Legal. Caelan Macbeth is a law clerk at Warlows Legal.
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