Billionaire Donor Criticizes Brown’s Deal With Protesters — Halts His Financial Support
Saturday, May 04, 2024
A billionaire donor to Brown University said he is pausing his giving — due to the Ivy League institution’s deal with pro-Palestinian protesters.
“The real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht’s scathing criticism of his alma mater is the most immediate blowback against the school’s deal to end protests on campus,” reported The New York Times.
“One of Brown University’s major donors, the billionaire real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht, on Friday sharply criticized the school’s agreement to hold a board vote on cutting investments tied to Israel, calling it 'unconscionable' and saying he had 'paused' donations to the school,” wrote the Times.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAs GoLocal reported on April 30, "The group had demanded that Brown divest the University’s investment from a group of defense industry corporations tied to Israel.
The Brown administration did not agree to the demands. Instead, Brown President Christina Paxson’s administration committed that the Brown Corporation would consider such an action at its October meeting.”
Latest Protest Fallout
The Times writes, "Mr. Sternlicht, 63, said no deal with protesters could be fruitful because the two sides did not agree on 'facts and moral clarity,' as well as the scale of Israel’s invasion of Gaza after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, in which about 1,200 were killed and another 250 were taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent intense bombardment of the tightly packed area has left more than 34,000 dead and drawn international condemnation."
According to the Times, Sternlicht said he had donated more than $20 million to Brown but would not give more for now.
“Dr. Paxson referred a request for comment to a spokesman for Brown, who declined to comment directly, instead sending a statement reading in part that 'there are few issues as contentious and deeply felt as those related to Israel,'" the Times reported.
“Mr. Sternlicht, in his letter, had pointed words for Dr. Paxson, suggesting that she should be more critical of Hamas and willing to push out professors who engaged in hate speech,” according to the Times. “As for the protesters formerly on the quadrangle, Mr. Sternlicht wrote that students who ‘feel like Hamas is noble’ should leave Brown.”
The professor who those gifts supported is Beshara B Doumani, the Mahmoud Darwish Professor of Palestinian Studies at Brown. He also simultaneously has served as the President of Birzeit University from 2021 to 2023, located in the Palestinian West Bank territory. His Brown University bio does not mention his role heading the Palestinian University, but his Birzeit bio features his role at Brown.
When Doumani was named to the Presidency at Birzeit, the American conservation publication the American Spectator wrote, "Palestine’s ‘Terrorist University’ Picks Ivy League Prof as New President." Doumani is back teaching at Brown and has shared the stage speaking to students about the war along with Paxson.
“The blowback from Mr. Sternlicht, who has described himself as a political independent and whose name is on a Brown residence hall, shows how quickly the issue of divestment from Israel may vex universities. Until a week ago, even discussing the subject was widely considered a nonstarter, as it was sure to divide a large swath of students and faculty from many of the businesspeople whose donations fill university endowments,” wrote the Times.
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