Beverly Hills City Councilmember Calls for Expelling Qatari Consulate

Beverly Hills City Councilman John Mirisch called for the State Department to expel the Qatari consulate from Beverly Hills during a July 16 city council meeting.

Mirisch, a former mayor of Beverly Hills, pointed out that Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was convicted of “bribery and acting as a foreign agent” and the indictment against Menendez listed Qatar as one of those countries. “Qatar has used its wealth to influence our universities and students and poison them against Israel and Jews,” Mirisch said. “They use their wealth to try and influence American policy and try and incite hatred against Israel and Jews.” He added that the Qatari regime uses their money in support of the Muslim Brotherhood and “to bolster Islamofascism including in regimes like Iran. Now they have used their wealth to bribe a sitting U.S. Senator.”

They use their wealth to try and influence American policy and try and incite hatred against Israel and Jews … Now they have used their wealth to bribe a sitting U.S. Senator.” – John Mirisch

Mirisch proceeded to list the ways in which Qatar supports Hamas, including that “it hosts Hamas, it trains Hamas and it propagandizes for Hamas with Al Jazeera” and likened them to the Batman villain Two-Face. “For all those reasons and more, I propose that Qatar be designated a state-sponsor of terrorism, that its assets be frozen and used to compensate the victims of Qatar-funded terrorism and that we ask the State Department to expel the Qatari consulate from Beverly Hills,” he concluded.

Wow! Beverly Hills Councilmember @JohnMirisch calls on the @StateDept to expel the Qatari consulate from the city and designate Qatar as a state sponsor of terrorism.

"They use their wealth… to incite hatred against Israel and Jews."pic.twitter.com/ugpUrLiQog

— Sia Kordestani (@SiaKordestani) July 18, 2024

As reported in The Journal last October, Mirisch and Beverly Hills Synagogue Rabbi Pini Dunner have been vocal in calling for the Qatari regime to be held accountable, particularly in regards to the regime’s ownership of The Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills. “We need to continue to make our Community aware of the ongoing support of Qatar for Hamas, as well as their anti-Israel and antisemitic behavior,” he told The Journal. “Clearly, especially in these traumatic times, our residents should have the ability to choose if they want to patronize businesses whose owners promote and support groups who call for Israel’s destruction.”

The Times of Israel has reported that Qatar funneled $4.7 billion “to dozens of academic institutions across the United States between 2001 and 2021” and that “Qatar’s links to American academia date back to the 1970s and 1980s.”