BDS-supporting Brown prof was previously head of school that supported 'right of Palestinians to self-defense' after Oct. 7

Brown University employs a professor who used to serve as the president of a controversial Palestinian University. 

Beshara Doumani, the inaugural Mahmoud Darwish Professor of Palestinian Studies, served as president of Birzeit University in the West Bank from 2021–2023. He first joined Brown in 2012, where he founded the school’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

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Several Birzeit student council members who are also Hamas members were recently arrested by Israel as they were planning to carry out a terrorist attack . 

Following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, Birzeit released a statement on Oct. 11 announcing that it “condemns the aggressive actions carried out by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, as well as across our homeland. We stand in solidarity with our resilient people and extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the martyrs, whose sacrifices have engraved stories of pride and honor in the records of our nation.”

”We assert the inherent right of Palestinians to self-defense and their relentless pursuit of freedom from the oppressive occupation,” it added. 

Doumani has expressed his support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to delegitimize Israel and force it into economic isolation. BDS and its supporters have been widely and repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism. 

In July, Brown struck a deal with the Department of Education regarding combating anti-Semitism at the school after Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Dr. Zachary Marschall submitted a complaint stating that “pro-Israel students are targeted and threatened on campus.” As part of the deal, Brown agreed to strengthen its nondiscrimination efforts.

Brown has also experienced a disruptive anti-Israel protest inspired by Columbia’s anti-Israel encampment in April. To negotiate an end to the Brown encampment, school officials promised to involve a group of students in discussions with the Brown leadership to “present their arguments to divest Brown’s endowment from” Israel. 

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Brown President Christina H. Paxson also agreed to “ask the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management to provide a recommendation on the matter of divestment by Sept. 30.” 

A Brown spokesperson told Campus Reform: “Brown University has no institutional affiliation of any kind with Birzeit University. Any independent relationship that any individual faculty or student might have with any external institution at any time would not constitute any relationship with or affiliation by the University.”

Campus Reform has contacted Professor Beshara Doumani and Birzeit University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.