George Washington University suspends anti-Israel student groups until 2025 over disruptive demonstrations
Two anti-Israel groups at George Washington University (GWU) were suspended on Aug. 19 following the anti-Israel demonstrations they held during the 2023–2024 school year.
The two student groups are GWU’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Two anti-Israel groups at George Washington University (GWU) were suspended on Aug. 19 following the disruptive demonstrations they held during the 2023–2024 school year.
The two student groups are GWU’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
The suspension will last throughout the fall semester. The two groups will no longer be official campus organizations and will not be able to receive any funding from the university.
“GW takes seriously our commitment to free expression, ensuring the safety of our community, and maintaining our education and research missions,” a spokesperson for GWU told The Daily Caller.
“As is appropriate for institutions of higher education,” the spokesperson continued, “GW also has an obligation to address violations of university policy, and does so without regard to the content of the message those demonstrating seek to advance. It does so through a Code of Student Conduct that provides a fair review process that includes student peers.”
The chapters were previously suspended due to their decision to project anti-Israel messages, including “Glory to our martyrs” and “Free Palestine From the River to the Sea,” on campus buildings.
Two days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel, GWU’s SJP chapter stated that it supported the “liberation of our homeland and our people’s right to resist” by “any means necessary.”
“GW has been committing racist discrimination against Palestinians and those who stand alongside them for years, and this University has issued sanction after sanction on pro-Palestine student organizations since the beginning of this stage of genocide in Gaza,” GWU’s Student Coalition for Palestine wrote in an Instagram post on Aug. 20.
“GW hasn’t learned their lesson: you cannot sanction this movement out of existence,” the group continued. “When SJP was banned from campus in November, the movement returned ten times stronger, and we will return a hundred times stronger in the face of their repression.”
“So long as GW continues to facilitate, fund, and provide cover for the genocide of our people, we will resist,” the post concluded. “We remain steadfast and united in our struggle for the liberation of Palestine and all oppressed and colonized people of the world.”
Campus Reform has contacted George Washington University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
