Anti-Israel protests resume at GWU as students demand university divestment from Israel
Pro-Palestine protesters at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. recently resumed their demonstrations on the first day of classes for the fall semester.
The protests, organized by the DMV Students for Justice in Palestine, center around demands including dropping charges against pro-Palestine students and divesting from companies associated with Israel.
Anti-Israel protesters at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. recently resumed their demonstrations on the first day of classes for the fall semester.
The demonstration happened on Aug. 22, when protesters were captured on video shaking a metal barricade that had been set up on the university’s Foggy Bottom campus.
Protesters are seen shaking the barricade and chanting “f**k you and your barricades, power to the student brigade.” The protest was reportedly organized by the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia Students for Justice in Palestine (DMV SJP) coalition.
The DMV SJP coalition posted to Instagram on Aug. 20, advertising the pro-Palestine demonstration at GWU, rallying what it referred to as the “STUDENT INTIFADA.”
“After mass arresting and brutalizing students, suspending pro-Palestine students and student organizations, and pursuing criminal law fare against those arrested at Shuhada Square, GW’s administration has buckled to months of community pressure and accepted student’s conditions for negotiations,” the anti-Israel student group stated.
The Instagram post additionally stated that negotiations between the pro-Palestine students and the university administration would soon resume.
The group stated that negotiations would center around five demands, including that the university “Drop all charges and sanctions against Pro-Palestine students and student organizations,” “Protect pro-Palestine speech and organizing on campus,” and “Divest from all companies selling technology, weapons, and logistics to fuel genocide in Gaza.”
Pro-Palestine students are additionally demanding that the university disclose all of its investments and terminate all “academic partnerships with the genocidal settler state of Israel.”
“Join us this Thursday the first day of the semester, as negotiations resume, to let GW know that the people of this city continue to demand disclosure and divestment,” the group advertised. “We continue to demand an end to GW’s attacks on student organizing for the liberation of Palestine.”
Campus Reform reported earlier this month about a court agreement that could see pro-Palestine demonstrators at GWU barred from entering the school’s campus for more than a full semester.
As part of the agreement, the student activists would have charges dropped if they agree not to go on specific parts of GWU’s campus for six months.
During the spring semester, GWU President Ellen M. Granberg described how the student prot esters had “overrun” the university’s barriers.
Campus Reform has contacted George Washington University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
