Civil Rights Attorneys Urge GW to Drop Racist Charges against Palestine Group and its Student Leader

IMAGE CREDIT: GW SJP / @MCMICHELANGELO_

George Washington University is bringing disciplinary charges against GW Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and its student president for protesting an event held on campus featuring Doron Tenne, a former senior intelligence official in the Israeli military. The university initiated an investigation after pro-Israel students complained about the protest, and is now threatening SJP’s president with disciplinary probation. A conduct hearing on the matter is scheduled for this Friday.

SJP is a student organization on campus that advocates for Palestinian liberation. It’s comprised mostly of Arab and Palestinian students. 

Palestine Legal, which is representing SJP and the group’s president, brought a civil rights complaint against the university last November for violating the DC Human Rights Act after it cancelled trauma support services for Palestinian students following Israel’s devastating war on Gaza in Spring 2021. The DC Office of Human Rights has since charged the university with national origin discrimination, and an investigation is ongoing. 

“SJP followed all the rules around postering and directed their members and allies to do the same. But GW is selectively targeting this group for punishment, when there is zero evidence of any wrongdoing. This looks like racist, anti-Palestinian profiling and the law does not support it.” said Palestine Legal staff attorney Dylan Saba, who is representing the group. 

On October 11th, 2022, GW Hillel hosted an event in which Tenne, who oversaw horrific and violent repression against Palestinians during his time in the Israeli army, spoke on campus. Prior to the event, GW SJP organized a postering campaign to demonstrate student support for Palestinian rights and opposition to hosting individuals responsible for overseeing war crimes, in compliance with GW policies on freedom of expression. The posters, which were wheat-pasted in public areas around campus, in compliance with university policy, contained messages such as “Decolonize Palestine,” “GW for a Free Palestine,” “Settlers Fuck Off Stop the Annexation of Palestine,” and “Zionists Fuck Off Save Sheikh Jarrah Free Palestine.” 

On the day of the event, SJP and allied student groups also staged a protest outside GW Hillel.

Following the protest, Israel advocacy organizations and media outlets smeared students supporting Palestinian rights online, disingenuously alleging that the action—which was co-organized by the campus chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace—was antisemitic. One blacklist site posted a photo of the pro-Palestinian students and asked its 60,000 followers to dox them. Numerous pro-Israel students on campus reported students protesters to the administration. 

Disturbingly, the campus police department contacted one Arab SJP member, seeking to question her about the protest. 

A week later, SJP’s president was called into a student conduct meeting and interrogated about the protest, statements SJP made publicly in support of Palestinian liberation, and the postering campaign. 

SJP’s president explained that both he and the group were in full compliance with all GW policies and had broken no rule or law. Further, he explained that the chants made at the protest were critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians—and Tenne’s role in that mistreatment—but that this speech is protected political expression and in no way constitutes harassment. 

GW informed SJP that pro-Israel students had filed complaints claiming that threatening and harassing comments were made during the protest, that the protest was excessively noisy, and that there was misconduct related to property.

On October 28th, the university charged SJP’s president and the organization with a violation of the student conduct code for misconduct related to property. The hearing will take place on Friday December 2nd. If found guilty, SJP’s president could face disciplinary probation. SJP could also face censure from the university and limitations on its privileges as a student organization.

“At a university that claims to support free speech, we should be able to protest against war criminals who come to our campus without facing retaliation from the administration,” said SJP organizer Lance Lokas. “But when it comes to Palestine it seems like the normal rules don’t apply.”

GW’s continued repression of student expression in support of Palestinian rights violates its stated policy on political expression, according to which the university “is committed to the protection of free speech, the freedom of assembly, and the safeguarding of the right of lawful protest.” 

Following the student conduct hearing on Friday, GW administrators will determine whether to formally sanction SJP and the group’s president. 

“Seeing who was contacted by the police, and who is facing possible sanctions, this feels a lot like racial profiling,” said Lokas, who is Arab. “We had dozens of people involved in this action, from all different types of backgrounds, including Jewish comrades supporting Palestinian rights. But only students who are Palestinian or perceived to be Palestinian are being targeted.”