Published October 1, 2024
A Palestinian university that Hamas once described as a “greenhouse for martyrs” has received roughly $2.2 million in taxpayer-backed handouts from the U.S. government over the last decade, records show.
Between 2009 and 2023, taxpayers in the United States footed the bill for more than a dozen grants to the West Bank-based An-Najah National University, according to federal funding documents reviewed by the Washington Examiner. The college reportedly serves as a recruitment hub of students into terrorist factions, including Hamas, the student wing of which secured the majority of seats on An-Najah’s council last year.
The awards to An-Najah, which have come almost entirely from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, are a window into how the U.S. has long implemented taxpayer-backed programs overseas that boost terrorism-linked entities. To many members of Congress and national security experts, it is high time for government officials to reassess the federal handout system to ensure the U.S. is not bankrolling violent groups targeting Israel and other U.S. allies.
“Not a single taxpayer dime should go to any university or organization that supports terrorism, and it’s no secret An-Najah National University has a reputation for developing members of Hamas and other terrorist groups,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told the Washington Examiner — adding the U.S. “must take action immediately to halt all funding to An-Najah National University” and other schools affiliated with Hamas.
‘Greenhouse for martyrs’
Chartered in 1977, An-Najah is located in the West Bank’s Nablus, a city approximately 30 miles north of Jerusalem. Months before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack last year on Israel, Hamas’s student wing at the university won the student council elections, according to multiple reports.
The student council “is known for its advocacy of anti-Israel violence and its recruitment of Palestinian college students into terrorist groups,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. Hamas officials have described An-Najah as a “greenhouse for martyrs.”
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