Rabbi Pini Dunner, a Los Angeles-based rabbi, protested Qatar outside the Washington, D.C., embassy with about a dozen activists on May 7. The demonstration was organized by Israel Resilience & Outreach Network Initiative, a Los Angeles-based advocacy group.
In attendance of “Protest Against Qatar” were members of Betar, a Revisionist Zionist organization.
“We stand loud and tall at the Qatari embassy in Washington, DC to say clearly Qatar is Hamas. We will not be silent!!” the group posted on X May 7.
Dunner and other activists handed out fact sheets about Qatar to hundreds of passersby in D.C.
The group staged a demonstration because it claims that Qatar has provided more than $1.8 billion to Hamas since 2012, including “direct cash payments to the Gaza Strip under the guise of humanitarian aid,” according to the distributed fact sheet.
According to CNN and The New York Times, the Qatari government has sent an estimated $30 million per month into the Gaza Strip, aiding the Hamas government there. Israeli news reports and analysts claim that Qatar has transferred more than one billion dollars to Hamas over the past decade.
A Qatari official said the money is intended to “help the Palestinian people, not Hamas,” according to NPR. For many years, Israel has accused Qatar of funding Hamas.
The IRON Initiative fact sheet also claimed that foreign donations from Qatar have “played a crucial role in fomenting growing levels of antisemitic and anti-American propaganda at U.S. universities.”
According to Financial Times, the Qatari government is one of the largest donors to American colleges over the past decade. Some conservative activists assert that such funding has “influenced attitudes toward Israel at elite U.S. universities,” which have been under close watch since Oct. 7, 2023.
Dunner has led dozens of protests, mainly in Beverly Hills, gathering hundreds of community members to oppose Qatar’s funding of “enemies of the United States” while maintaining an “alliance status.”
This May 7 protest gained the attention of a Qatari diplomat: “It clearly annoyed the Qatari diplomat who runs the embassy, because he tweeted a sarcastic put-down,” Dunner said in a written statement emailed to Washington Jewish Week.
In response to Dunner’s post on X about the protest, Hamad Al-Muftah, the deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of the State of Qatar in D.C., replied, “Very big protest wow. Holy cow.”
“Qatar is so over sensitive [sic] to a negative public image, this is how they react when a dozen protesters appear at their embassy. How pathetic,” Dunner posted to X in response.
