A new report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy alleges that Qatar has spent more than $65 million over nearly two decades to influence American education, including curricula and teacher-training programs that promoted anti-Israel narratives in schools and universities across the United States.

The report, titled Institutional Capture: Qatar Foundation International and the Use of Soft Power to Reshape Education in the United States, focuses on Qatar Foundation International, the U.S.-based education arm of the Qatar Foundation. According to ISGAP, QFI funded more than 220 programs between 2009 and 2025, reaching K-12 schools, colleges, universities, teacher-training networks and national education organizations.

The report claims that QFI’s work went far beyond Arabic-language instruction, alleging that the organization helped shape teaching materials, professional development programs and educational networks dealing with the Middle East. ISGAP says the result was a broad influence operation that advanced anti-Israel and pro-Qatar narratives while operating with limited transparency.

Among the report’s most serious allegations is that QFI-backed materials and programs helped create what ISGAP called a “new baseline standard of pedagogy” that questions Israel’s legitimacy, rejects Arab-Israeli normalization and “normalizes and relativizes terrorism.” Jewish Insider, which first reported on the findings, said the report also claims QFI-funded programs gave the organization oversight or review power over some lesson plans developed through professional training programs.

Yisrael Hayom reported that the ISGAP findings included cases in which Israel was replaced by “Palestine” on maps used in educational settings. The report also claims that QFI embedded itself in history, geography, culture, social studies and professional training programs, rather than limiting its work to Arabic-language education.

QFI describes itself differently. On its website, Qatar Foundation International says it supports teachers, students, schools and organizations in “advancing Arabic as a global language,” and says it operates independently from its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Qatar Foundation’s own website describes QFI as a U.S.-based member of Qatar Foundation dedicated to Arabic language and culture education for students and teachers around the world.

ISGAP argues that QFI’s public description understates the scale and nature of its work. The report alleges that QFI deliberately presented itself as a U.S.-based educational nonprofit while being closely tied to Qatar Foundation and later moving its headquarters to Doha, a structure ISGAP says helped the organization avoid closer scrutiny under foreign influence and education-funding disclosure rules.

ISGAP is calling for a federal investigation into QFI’s work, stronger foreign funding disclosure laws, greater transparency for federally backed Middle East education centers and a ban on further Qatari state or QFI funding of U.S. schools and curriculum-development programs. The group also called for QFI to be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The report builds on earlier ISGAP allegations about foreign influence in U.S. classrooms. In March, the group released a separate report targeting Brown University’s Choices Program, saying that the widely used K-12 social studies curriculum had become increasingly anti-Israel and that its funding and institutional structure lacked transparency. That report said the program reaches more than 8,000 schools across all 50 states and more than one million students.

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