By Moataz Salim
As students across the United States return to college campuses this fall, many face renewed restrictions when it comes to their right to assemble, peacefully protest and express their discontent with their universities' support of Israel.
In the heart of Washington, DC, my own university has been busy betraying the basic principles of free speech that it has always professed to uphold.
Under the leadership of President Ellen Granberg, George Washington University (GWU) has engaged in a targeted campaign against its Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students. This university, which claims to be a beacon of academic freedom, has instead become an institution that systematically vilifies those who dare to protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
GWU's actions have so far included mass arrests; the suspension of campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP); and ongoing disciplinary action against students including myself.
GWU supports Israel
Through these actions, my university has shown where it stands on the daily murder, starvation, and humiliation of Palestinians by the Zionist Israeli state. GWU's refusal to divest from companies complicit in funding and arming this genocide further underscores its support.
In recent months, the university's reputation for cultivating an environment that is not just hostile but actively discriminatory against my community has gained some infamy.
Earlier this month, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) designated GWU as an "institution of particular concern" for its targeted harassment of "Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other students, faculty, and staff" who have been opposing the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
In this report, CAIR detailed widespread free speech violations and the rise of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia across over 30 US colleges, with GWU ranking among the top three for "most egregious incidents of violence" alongside Emory and UCLA.
The situation at GWU was so severe that CAIR's Research & Advocacy Director, Corey Saylor, urged prospective students to consider other institutions where free speech and academic freedom are genuinely respected, rather than being empty promises.
Prolonged discrimination
This is not a recent development. Even before the Gaza encampments, GWU had a notorious history of targeting Palestinians. On May 11 of last year, the US Department of Education opened a formal investigation into a Title VI complaint alleging that GWU discriminated against Palestinian students.
And in November of 2021, Palestine Legal, an advocacy group focused on defending people who support Palestinian rights, initiated a civil rights complaint against GWU because the university cancelled a virtual healing space for Palestinian students organised by its own Office of Advocacy and Support after Hillel, a pro-Israel campus organisation, lodged a complaint.
This cancellation denied a Palestinian student, injured while studying remotely in the West Bank, access to much-needed mental health care after experiencing significant trauma. Within 24 hours of advertising the virtual healing space, high-level GWU officials intervened to shut it down, revealing the university's blatant disregard for the well-being of its Palestinian students.
In another example, last year, Dr. Lara Sheehi, a former GWU psychology professor, was targeted during an online seminar by pro-Israel students for defending Palestinian rights. I was in the class that Sheehi was teaching when several students made anti-Palestinian remarks, such as labelling all Palestinian civilians killed by the Israeli army as terrorists. No repercussions against the hecklers were ever announced.
This atmosphere of hatred and intolerance that GWU has allowed to fester is undeniable.
Gaza encampment
In April, students set up an encampment for Gaza, demanding that the university drop previous charges levelled against pro-Palestine student organisers; protect pro-Palestine speech on campus; divest from companies selling technology and weapons to the Zionist regime; immediately disclose all endowments and investments; and end all academic partnerships with Israel.
Instead of responding to these demands, President Granberg and the university administration chose to unleash DC police officers, with the assistance of DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, to violently raid the encampment.
The police brutality that ensued was horrific, and Palestinian and Muslim students were especially targeted. I was personally punched by a policeman and doused with pepper spray while trying to disperse.
Other students and community members were also brutalised by police and vigorously pepper sprayed. During this raid, GWU sent a clear message: it would rather use violence against its students than divest from companies involved in genocide.
Adding to this blatant display of violence, GWU initially barred community medical professionals and legal observers from accessing the site, further endangering the safety and rights of those present.
After the violent encampment raid, GWU appeared to have destroyed students' prayer mats and translated copies of the Quran, underscoring its complete disdain for the dignity and religious freedoms of its own students.
Thirty-three individuals were arrested during this brutal crackdown, including at least eight GWU students, several students from other universities in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area, and other community members. Many face an egregious legal punishment at the university's behest—a six-month "stay away order" from campus, effectively restricting their access to dining halls, libraries, and even the metro.
In addition to the legal charges, students face disciplinary actions from the university, further demonstrating GWU's ruthless and punitive approach to those who oppose its complicity in genocide.
Following the arrests, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, whose organization is representing at least one arrested student, aptly noted in a statement: "These prosecutions are just so outside the normal practice regarding protest arrests…they're politically motivated and intended to silence and retaliate against students because they advocated against the genocide in Gaza."
Mark Goldstone, a defence attorney representing several students, condemned the stay-away order when speaking to the Washington Post as "excessive, broad, and unnecessary."
Suppression continues
Fearing a resurgence of protests demanding divestment this fall, GWU on August 21, 2024, suspended the campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). This blatant suppression of dissent is yet another example of the university's willingness to silence those who speak out against its involvement in genocide.
I remember feeling abandoned and depressed by the university's lack of recognition or acknowledgment of the genocide of my people, as well as by the silence of many faculty members and students in my program.
I have lost 161 relatives to the genocide in Gaza. For my activism for Gaza and Palestine, I was brutalised by police at the behest of GWU.
As I write this, I am undergoing disciplinary proceedings despite having taken a leave of absence until January. The university's efforts to stifle the voices of Palestinian students will not succeed. Despite their punitive measures, students and community members marched through GWU's campus this month to demonstrate that the fight for justice and divestment from genocide will not be silenced.
Advice for the future
There is no telling what will come next, but one thing is certain: the students at GWU, and perhaps those not yet targeted with punitive measures, will continue to pressure the university to divest from genocide and settler-colonialism.
Hundreds of community members attended the latest rally, signaling that the people of DC and the extended DMV area are in lockstep with the students fighting for divestment from genocide.
Despite my optimism in this fight, I leave you with a warning: For Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students considering GWU as an option for their education, my advice is simple: don't. GWU is a dangerous place for those who dare to speak out against injustice.
The university's hypocrisy, its abandonment of free speech principles, and its complicity in genocide make it a hostile environment for any student who values human rights.
The author, Moataz Salim is a Palestinian graduate student in DC from Gaza advocating for an end to the genocide and the liberation of Palestine. He has joined CODEPINK every day for 3 months to be a voice for his people. He has also been involved in activism at a university and within the local community, dedicating the past 10 months to fighting for Palestinian liberation.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT Afrika.
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