US health agency to cut funds from universities boycotting Israel
A US health agency has said that it will withdraw medical research financial aid from universities with diversity and inclusion schemes and any boycott of Israeli firms, Middle East Eye reported on April 22nd.
The policy affects “domestic recipients of new, renewal, supplement, or continuation awards that are issued on or after the date.” Universities seeking grants must also end diversity and inclusion programmes, the note stated.
The agency, known as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), forms part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH said it “reserves the right to terminate financial assistance awards and recover all funds” if those receiving the funding do not respect federal rules prohibiting diversity and equity research and banned boycotts.
This follows the Trump administration’s freeze of funds on the universities of Harvard and Columbia.
From early May 2024, protests calling for universities to withdraw investments from Israeli governmental and army operations in Gaza have intensified. Some institutions have rejected divestment, while others have agreed to discuss investment issues with protesting students, ABC reported on May 3rd.
Harvard University refused to submit to demands from the Trump administration, despite facing threats to its federal funding. The row started when the administration pushed for significant changes to Harvard’s regulations. These proposed rules addressed issues like pro-Palestine campus protests as well as diversity and inclusion programmes. The government declared that they aimed to reduce “the power held by the faculty and administrators more committed to activism than scholarship.”
ABC News, Middle East Eye
