Carnegie Mellon University’s top DEI official, currently at the center of an anti-Semitism discrimination lawsuit, served as an “international liaison” for a terror-linked Palestinian NGO that was recently sanctioned by the State Department.
Elizabeth Rosemeyer serves as assistant vice provost of DEI and Title IX coordinator at Carnegie Mellon, where she oversees the Pittsburgh-based private university’s efforts “to prevent and effectively respond to all forms of discrimination.”
Years before joining Carnegie Mellon, Rosemeyer served as “international liaison” for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), an anti-Israel lawfare group formed in 1995 by a former member of the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Rosemeyer worked for the organization in the Gaza Strip from July 1996 to July 1997, according to her LinkedIn profile, writing grant proposals and communications materials for “funders, constituents and international media.” The State Department sanctioned the PCHR in September over its collusion with the International Criminal Court “to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent.”
Rosemeyer’s background could become relevant to a lawsuit filed by former Carnegie Mellon student Yael Canaan, who accuses the school of fostering a culture of anti-Semitism. Rosemeyer is a central figure in the lawsuit. The lawsuit led to the startling disclosure last month that Qatar, the Hamas-allied Gulf monarchy, “partially” funds Rosemeyer’s position at Carnegie Mellon and the school’s campus in Doha, Qatar.
Canaan, a student from 2018 to 2022, alleges that architecture professor Mary-Lou Arscott directed several anti-Semitic remarks at her, including a suggestion that Canaan should do a class project exploring “what Jews do to make themselves such a hated group.”
Canaan alleges Rosemeyer, who joined Carnegie Mellon in 2018, dismissed her concerns and “aggressively discouraged Canaan from filing a formal complaint” against Arscott.
Canaan contends that Qatar, which has contributed more than $1 billion to Carnegie Mellon for a satellite campus in Doha, influenced Carnegie Mellon to create an “antisemitic organizational culture motivating it to unlawfully discriminate against her and harass her.”
Carnegie Mellon has broadly denied Canaan’s allegations, though the school made some surprising disclosures in the case.
“Notably, CMU concedes that Qatari interests partially fund the position of Elizabeth Rosemeyer, because she serves both CMU’s Main Campus and its Doha campus as Assistant Vice Provost for DEI and Title IX Coordinator,” district judge W. Scott Hardy wrote in a Dec. 5 opinion, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Hardy, a Trump appointee, ordered Carnegie Mellon to provide financial details about the Qatari support to Canaan. “Qatar and its affiliates could be a source of antisemitic influence upon CMU,” wrote Hardy, noting that the “largesse of Qatari funds supplied to CMU” could compel the school to “abide by expectations and wishes of its generous donors.”
Rosemeyer’s work for the PCHR has not yet been reported. During her tenure, the PCHR published numerous press statements in support of Hamas terrorists. In January 1997, the group accused the Israeli government of holding “hostage” the body of Hassan Abbas, a Hamas terrorist who was killed during an attack on civilians at a café in Jerusalem.
The PCHR has blamed Israel following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state. It described Hamas’s assault, in which 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, as “Palestinian armed groups engaged in an operation in response to escalating Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”
The PCHR has especially close ties to the PFLP, a designated terrorist group. Its founder, Raji Sourani, is a former member of the PFLP who was denied a visa to enter the United States in 2012 because of his terrorist affiliations. In 2014, the PCHR and the PFLP held an “Alternative Noble [sic] Prize” event in honor of Sourani. The PCHR has organized rallies for Khader Adnan, a former spokesman for the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
It is unclear what interactions Rosemeyer has had with Carnegie Mellon’s Qatari donors. Rosemeyer and Carnegie Mellon did not respond to requests for comment.
But the oil-rich monarchy has wielded influence over American schools before and bankrolls a stable of lobbyists to combat negative perceptions about the country in Congress and the media.
Qatar’s contract with Northwestern University, which has a satellite campus in Doha, includes a clause that forbids faculty and students from criticizing the Qatari regime, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Qatar has contributed nearly $800 million to Northwestern, according to federal records.
Northwestern hired PCHR member Mkhaimar Abusada last year as part of a deal with anti-Israel student groups to end their campus encampments, the Free Beacon reported.
Former congressmen James Moran (D., Va.) and Tom Davis (R., Va.), who were recently appointed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D., Va.) to serve on the board of visitors at George Mason University, have lobbied Congress on behalf of Qatar regarding hearings on campus anti-Semitism, the Free Beacon reported.
The Qatari embassy recently hired William Bennett, the secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, “to publicize the fact that Qatari higher education efforts do not support radical Islamist movements or positions.” In a column last year, Bennett denied that Qatar funds anti-Semitic campus protests and said allies of Israel were “using antisemitism to wage a politically motivated campaign against Qatar.”
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