George Mason University censors Palestinian student group for saying “Belly of the Beast” and “Turtle Island” in striking violation of First Amendment

Palestine Legal threatens to sue George Mason over unconstitutional enforcement of discredited IHRA definition

CONTACT: Palestine Legal Media, media@palestinelegal.org

Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 — Today, Palestine Legal sent a letter to George Mason University on behalf of their client, Students for Justice in Palestine at George Mason (Mason SJP), warning the university that as a public institution, using the IHRA definition to censor speech in support of Palestinian rights violates the First Amendment and federal civil rights law.

George Mason adopted the discredited IHRA definition in 2024 in response to the historic wave of student protests for Palestine, and has since faced significant pressure from the Department of Education to further crack down on speech that the Trump administration doesn’t like. The IHRA definition, promoted by right-wing Israel lobby groups, wrongly conflates virtually all criticism of Israel's human rights violations with antisemitism.

In August 2025, Mason SJP posted a video criticizing the university’s repressive policies towards student activists and condemning Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The very next week, they received an email from the Vice President of University Life, Rose Pascarell, demanding that SJP take down the post as a presumed violation of IHRA.

In what Palestine Legal considers to be among the most egregious examples of censorship using the IHRA definition, George Mason forced students to delete the social media content or risk facing severe disciplinary action for using the phrases “Belly of the Beast” in reference to US foreign policy, and “Turtle Island,” which is a term many Indigenous communities use to refer to North America. 

George Mason also stated that the censorship was based on SJP's use of the popular pro-Palestinian slogan "From The River to the Sea", which a federal appeals court last week ruled to be protected by the First Amendment, and for describing the state of Israel as "genocidal".

The legal letter states that “Each argument in [George Mason]’s explanation of why it censored SJP is unsupported by law or fact and underscores its viewpoint or content-based censorship of student speech. ” The letter also argues that the school’s censorship is not only an explicit violation of students’ speech rights, but its use of the IHRA definition also violates the federal civil rights of Palestinian students and their allies, by singling out and censoring the only Palestinian student group for using these terms.

“George Mason is shredding its students’ constitutional rights like confetti to appease the Trump administration as it wages an all-out war on free speech”, said Palestine Legal senior staff attorney Tori Porell. “George Mason must take corrective action to restore the rights of its students, and repeal the IHRA definition – or we will see them in court.”

George Mason has displayed a pervasive pattern of repression against Palestinian student activists. In November 2024, George Mason called on campus police and the FBI to jointly raid the family home of two Palestinian American students who belonged to the school’s SJP chapter. The alarming move was widely condemned by over 80 groups, including chapters of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at Mason and 11 other schools.

In addition to adopting the IHRA definition as a censorship tool designed to silence speech in support of Palestinian rights, the university also adopted anti-free speech policies that prohibited student encampments, restricted student posters and signs, and enforced a sound ordinance to prohibit forms of student protests.

George Mason’s actions and policies are designed to effectively prohibit any open expression of dissent to the US-Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and have contributed to a hostile environment where Palestinian and associated students have faced significant harms, including severely chilled speech and protest activities. This climate of fear, intimidation, and extreme repression is why student activists have chosen to speak out anonymously out of concern for their safety and fear of reprisal.

“George Mason’s bogus use of IHRA tramples on our First Amendment rights by threatening to suspend and punish students and faculty who rightfully speak out against Israel’s genocide against Palestinians,” said a representative for Mason Students for Justice in Palestine. “As Mason SJP we reject George Mason’s attempts to silence our principled protest, and will continue to speak out both for our right to protest and against George Mason's investments and complicity in Israel’s war crimes.”

Read Palestine Legal’s letter to George Mason University here.

Contact us at media@palestinelegal.org for comment from Palestine Legal attorneys, experts, and anonymous George Mason students.