GW President condemns student 'celebration of terrorism' after 'vigil' for Hamas 'martyrs'
'How dare you, Ellen Granberg,' the pro-Hamas student group responded in a social media post.
After a vigil celebrating the “martyrs” of the Palestinian resistance, George Washington University (GWU) President Ellen Granberg issued a statement condemning terrorism. The school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), however, quickly issued a counterstatement condemning Granberg.
“The right to free speech, assembly, and debate is the foundation on which our nation and our university are built, and members of the GW community, including our student organizations, have the right to be vocal and engaged within the boundaries of the law and our university policies,” Granberg said in a statement released on Wednesday.
“However, we are also a shared community,” she continued, “and I not only condemn terrorism, but I also abhor the celebration of terrorism and attempts to perpetuate rhetoric or imagery that glorifies acts of violence. Such messages do not speak on behalf of me, our administrators, or GW.”
Later that day, GWU’s SJP chapter took to Instagram to condemn Granberg’s statement, which it dismissed as “a direct attack on our communities, our safety, and our right to grieve.” It is worth noting that Granberg’s statement never specifically referenced the vigil event.
“How dare you, Ellen Granberg,” the post read. “How dare you call our mourning a ‘celebration of terrorism.’ How dare you slander the name of our martyrs as terrorists.”
“Our people have experienced 75 years of state-sanctioned terrorism by the Zionist entity,” the post continued. “Terrorism is the ethnic cleansing that has made millions of our people refugees. It is the pogroms, massacres, and bombing that our people face every single day.”
The post attacked Granberg as “openly [weaponizing] racist and Islamophobic language against us in a time when our communities are facing extreme levels of violence.”
“Our communities will not forget how you attacked us,” the post concluded. “We will not forget how you spat on the names of our dead. We will not forget how you dehumanized us in our time of mourning. Shame on you, Ellen Granberg. You will NOT slander our martyrs.”
The SJP chapter of Georgetown University shared the post on its Instagram story.
Campus Reform previously reported on GWU’s “Vigil for the Martyrs of Palestine,” during which students celebrated the events of “this past weekend” and how “we witnessed [Palestinians] breaking free.” Students at the vigil also justified the attack on Israel by saying that it was “NOT unprovoked.”
Campus Reform has reached out to Granberg, GWU, Georgetown University, and both chapters of SJP and will update accordingly.
