Antisemitic ex-Congressman Paul Findley, a Saudi sycophant whose rabid articles were purged from the ArabNews web site, has a friend in Dubai who’s giving Illinois College $1 million to honor the old Jew-hater: Dubai exec’s donation honors critic of U.S. policy on Israel.

Notice how the Chicago Tribune soft-pedals Findley’s insane conspiracy-mongering bigotry.

Illinois College, a small liberal arts college in Jacksonville, is getting a contribution of nearly $1 million from a Dubai multibillionaire who wants to honor a former U.S. congressman.

The gift, which was announced in November but hasn’t been widely reported, will allow the college to house the papers, some personal effects and other memorabilia of Paul Findley.

The 86-year-old Findley was born in and still resides in Jacksonville. He graduated from the school and much later served on its board. Though he served in the U.S. House for 22 years, he is mostly known today for his extensive writings and speeches on the influence of the Israeli lobby on U.S. foreign policy and politics.

In a tribute to his friend Findley, Khalaf Al Habtoor, chairman of Al Habtoor Holding LLC, a Dubai construction, engineering, publishing and resorts firm, plans to give the college $975,000. The gift is to be used to construct, endow and pay for a part-time curator for a center on leadership that is to be housed within Crampton Hall, a 140-year-old former dormitory that is being restored and converted into an administration building. The center will be named after Al Habtoor but will serve as the repository for Findley’s papers and memorabilia.

When the gift was announced, Illinois College President Axel Steuer expressed gratitude to Al Habtoor “for his recognition of the high quality of the college’s educational program and for honoring our distinguished graduate Paul Findley in this special way.”

Findley represented the area in the U.S. House until his defeat in 1982 by Democrat Dick Durbin, now the senior U.S. senator from Illinois. Findley has claimed that the pro-Israeli lobby targeted him for that defeat because of his criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Since then, he has written and spoken at many Middle East forums about what he sees as that lobby’s undue influence over U.S. foreign policy. He has said the United States would not have been attacked on 9/11 or invaded Iraq if not for its uncritical support of Israel.

He is founding chairman of the Council for the National Interest, a Washington, D.C.-based group that seeks to “reverse the U.S. government’s one-sided, one-way Middle East policies.”

Findley said he met Al Habtoor about 20 years ago. He said the Arab mogul helped to disseminate Findley’s 1985 book, “They Dare to Speak Out,” to U.S. libraries and invited him to speak a few years ago before a group in Abu Dhabi. Al Habtoor also has promoted Findley in his print and online publications. The mogul himself uses those organs to opine on Middle East issues and criticize U.S. policy in the region.

Findley said he had long planned to bequeath his papers and other effects to the college but “had almost zero hope that anyone would come up with the amount of cash needed” for a special campus setting for them. “But Al Habtoor did.”