Israeli Funding and Military Partnerships with American Universities
The Bottom Line: Approximately 100 US universities have received documented funding from Israel totaling $375 million over the past two decades, with $342 million reported from 2014-2024 alone. However, extensive underreporting means the true scale is likely much larger. This funding includes direct military research contracts, with MIT alone receiving over $11 million from Israel's Ministry of Defense since 2015 to develop warfare technology.
According to the US Education Department database, the scale of Israeli funding to American higher education is substantial:
$375 Million
Reported by approximately 100 US universities over the past two decades
$342 Million
Reported gifts and contracts from Israel to American colleges and universities
Critical Gap: Extensive underreporting takes place, with institutions dodging reporting requirements by steering money through separate foundations that work on their behalf.
Since 2015, MIT has received over $11 million in research funding from Israel's Ministry of Defense, with over $1.6 million allocated for 2023 alone.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense has poured more than $3.7 million into developing warfare technology at MIT since 2015. These funds support projects with clear military applications including:
$615 Million
Israeli Tel Aviv University received $615 million in grants from the US in 2023, according to its Form 990 filing.
Usage: $462 million was spent on salaries and employee benefits
Note: Unclear how much came from USAID or US taxpayers
2021-2023 Contracts:
Total: $5.85 Million
Four contracts from non-government sources in Israel
$4.85 Million
Received via eight non-governmental contracts from Israel in 2020
Percentage: 11.87% of its total disclosed foreign gifts that year
$274,543
Received in November 2023 through a restricted contract from Israel
Source: Non-government source (purpose not specified)
Georgetown students successfully blocked $30,000 of student funding from financing a trip to Israel with the pro-Israel organization, itrek. However, Georgetown currently holds $40.5 million in investments in Alphabet and Amazon, two companies contracted by the Israeli government for Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract.
On December 19, 2011, NYC Mayor Bloomberg, Cornell University President David J. Skorton, and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology President Peretz Lavie announced a historic partnership to build a two-million-square-foot applied science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City.
Universities maintain extensive relationships with Israeli defense contractors:
Many universities hold investments in companies contracted for Project Nimbus, the $1.2 billion Israeli government contract with Google and Amazon for cloud computing services supporting military operations.
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 requires institutions of higher education to disclose semiannually to the U.S. Department of Education any gifts received from and contracts with a foreign source that, alone or combined, are valued at $250,000 or more in a calendar year.
From 2010 to 2016, universities failed to disclose some 54 percent of all reportable gifts. During the Trump administration, after the ED's investigation found $6.5 billion in unreported foreign funds, disclosures by universities far exceeded the total amount.
During the first Trump administration, the Department of Education opened investigations on 19 campuses from 2019-2021, which led universities to report $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funds.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has conducted a wide-reaching investigation into campus antisemitism, collecting more than 400,000 pages of documents. This includes examination of foreign funding relationships.
Georgetown students successfully blocked $30,000 of student funding from financing a trip to Israel with the pro-Israel organization, itrek
Students are demanding disclosure of university investments in companies supporting Israeli military operations
Growing student opposition to university partnerships with Israeli military contractors and defense research
The U.S. Department of Education has made it difficult to assess the impact of these funds by intentionally obscuring data obtained from universities, misreporting information and altering previous reports.
Institutions dodge reporting requirements by steering money through separate foundations that work on their behalf, making the true scale of Israeli funding difficult to track.
When student researchers began investigating funding sources, universities have restricted access to grant information software, making transparency efforts more difficult.
This research reveals extensive financial relationships between Israeli institutions and US universities, much of it focused on military research and technology development. The systematic underreporting and lack of transparency make it difficult to assess the full scope of influence.
The documented cases show how American universities have become integral to Israeli military capabilities while often hiding these relationships from students, faculty, and the public.
This research is based on the following verified sources and documentation:
Verification Standard: All funding amounts and partnership details are verified through official university disclosures, Department of Education databases, or formal partnership announcements.