(New York, N.Y.) — Today, Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Chief Executive Officer Ambassador Mark D. Wallace and CEP President Frances F. Townsend call on all legal firms representing Qatar, including particularly those that have taken strong public stances in support of Israel and in opposition to growing antisemitism on U.S. soil, to cease all work for the Government of Qatar until it remands Hamas leadership into U.S., Israeli, or appropriate third party custody and ensures the safe return of every hostage.
Ambassador Wallace and former U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Frances F. Townsend stated:
“Regrettably, many U.S. law firms that have taken the admirable step of publicly denouncing antisemitism and vowing to combat its rise in the U.S. continue to represent Qatar. No respectable law firm, and certainly no firm that has taken such a step, should do business with the Qatari government while it harbors the orchestrators of the greatest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. We call on American law firms to stop representing Qatar.”
Qatar is complicit in the harboring of Hamas leadership, the promotion of their terrorism activities, and the proliferation of their vile antisemitism:
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh celebrated the October 7 massacre from his office in Doha, as did his predecessor, Khaled Meshaal. On October 11, Haniyeh called for supporters around the world to join Hamas in its barbaric violence in a video address aired on the Qatari-owned and controlled network, Al Jazeera. Since the attacks, Qatar has hosted at least two meetings, on October 14 and October 31, between Hamas leadership and its main sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is now rumored that Qatar has allowed Haniyeh safe passage to Iran on his private jet.
Qatar itself engages in and provides a platform for overt anti-Israel and antiemsitic rhetoric. Mere hours after the slaughter on October 7, Qatar’s foreign ministry claimed to “hold Israel solely responsible for the ongoing escalation [i.e. the massacre of Israeli women and children by Hamas] due to its ongoing violations.” Qatar’s leaders also strongly disputed Hamas’s well-documented brutality, with Israeli delegations required to convince their counterparts “that this was a massacre, that…they butchered us.”
Qatar is a hotbed of antisemitic sentiment that not only echoes but influences Hamas’s brutality. Religious leader Ali al-Karadaghi and his late predecessor, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, both provide Hamas with an alleged pretext (in the form of Fatwa) for its terror acts. Al-Karadaghi spews this violent rhetoric from Qatar, as did his predecessor.
More than 80 American law firms have signed a letter denouncing recent demonstrations of anti-Semitism on college campuses, calling on college administrations to take action against “rallies calling for the death of Jews and the elimination of the state of Israel.”
Yet some of these same firms continue to do business with a government that regularly allows and even sponsors such calls, not to mention accommodating, defending, and providing cover for the most notorious murderers of Jews the world has seen since the Holocaust.
CEP calls on McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, among other signatories, to clarify and suspend any and all work for the Qatar government.
To read The Times’ report on CEP’s call to boycott Qatar’s London hotels, click here.
To read The Wall Street Journal’s report on UANI and CEP’s previous call to action, please click here.
To read The Telegraph’s report citing CEP’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Wallace’s call for a Qatari asset freeze until it surrenders Hamas leadership to the U.S. and/or Israel, please click here.
To read The Washington Post’s report citing CEP CEO Mark Wallace on Qatar’s role in harboring Hamas, please click here.
To read CEP’s report, Qatar: Extremism and Terrorism, please click here.
To read CEP’s HARBORS Campaign Report on Qatar, please click here.
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