Arab Center Washington DC

Connection to Qatar

The Arab Center Washington DC is the American branch of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, a research institution based in Doha, Qatar. The central organization also has branches in Lebanon, Tunisia, and Paris. ^{3 4}

According to the pro-Israel Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, the Qatar and Washington-based Centers both promote “propaganda” supported by the Qatari state, including anti-Israel sentiment. The Centers are alleged “cornerstones of the Qatari royal enterprises, led and funded by the Qatar Foundation.” ⁵

Policy Stances

Israel-Hamas War

The Arab Center Washington DC is critical of Israel’s goals and conduct in the country’s counterattack after the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks by Hamas. The Center refers to Israel’s operations as an act of “genocide” and accuses Israel of “war crimes including the destruction of healthcare facilities, schools and universities, and attacks on civilians, medical personnel, aid workers, and institutions like UNRWA.” ⁶

In May 2025, the Center published an article claiming that Israel was implementing a “military-directed starvation” on Palestinian civilians. The Center claimed the policy is “a clear violation of international law, a crime against humanity, and a moral outrage.” ⁷

Earlier in May, the Center published an article claiming that Israel was engaging in “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” as a “prelude to annexation” of Gaza. ²

The Center has condemned U.S. government support for Israel and the alleged “crackdowns” against pro-Palestinian activists in the United States, such as foreign-national university students threatened with deportation for their protests. ^{8 9}

The Center has praised the New York City mayoral candidacy of Zohran Mamdani (D), a far-left New York State Assemblyman. The Center praised Mamdani for his support for Palestinians: “Mamdani, for his part, stood with protesters, demanded the release of Mahmoud Khalil, and called out Israel’s war crimes. Mamdani even pledged he’d have the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, an indicted war criminal, arrested if he came to New York City while he was mayor.” ¹⁰

Anti-Muslim Discrimination

The Center has claimed that there is widespread anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination in the United States. In 2021, the Center praised President Joe Biden for bringing six Arab Americans into the Biden administration and ending President Donald Trump’s ban on immigration from numerous Muslim-majority countries (sometimes called the “Muslim ban”). However, the Center argued that many of President Biden’s gestures to Muslim Americans were merely symbolic and failed to address “the underlying systems that maintain anti-Arab bigotry or the structures that make policies like the Muslim ban possible.” ¹¹

Federal Cuts

The Center has been critical of the second Trump administration’s cuts to numerous federal programs, especially those concerning foreign aid like the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Center has argued that such cuts jeopardize the continuity of democratic institutions in the Middle East and around the world and harm the U.S.’s diplomatic reputation. ¹²

Climate Change

The Center has written about the dangers posed by climate change, particularly in destabilizing the Middle East due to shifts in energy usage and the loss of water resources. ^{1 13}

Free Speech

The Center has advocated for free speech and better protections for the media in the United States and Middle Eastern countries. In 2019, Marc Lamont Hill was a panelist at the Center’s annual conference to speak on his experience of being fired from CNN allegedly due to his support for Palestinian nationalism. ¹⁴

Controversy

In June 2025, Defending Education, a right-of-center organization that opposes the teaching of critical race theory and related left-of-center ideologies in K-12 public schools, published a research report on the New Trier Township High School District 203 in Illinois which implemented left-wing political training programs for its teachers, including instruction on teaching “justice for Palestine” and the existence of Israel as an instance of “settler-colonialism.” Anti-Israel writing from the Arab Center Washington DC was used in the program as a resource for students. ¹⁵

Leadership

Palestinian-American scholar Khalil Jahshan has worked as the executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC since January 2014. Jahshan previously worked as the executive vice president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Jahshan also formerly worked as the executive director of the Washington, D.C. program of Pepperdine University; as president of the National Association of Arab Americans; assistant director of the Palestine Research and Education Center; and as director of the national office of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates. ¹⁶