George Washington University Hillel Center Targeted in Anti-Israel Protest on Sukkot
by Dion J. Pierre
Students at George Washington University held a profanity-laden anti-Israel protest outside the school’s Hillel center on the second night of Sukkot, an advocacy group for Jewish students reported on Wednesday.
According to the group, the protestors shouted “Israel is a terrorist state” while holding a banner that said, “War criminals GTFO.”
“Having this protest outside of an inherently Jewish space, at a time when it’s known that Jewish students would be using this space, shows the explicit targeting of Jewish students,” the group Jewish on Campus tweeted. “Harassing Jews in the name of the Israel-Palestine conflict is antisemitism, plain and simple.”
On Friday, four days before the protest, flyers saying “Zionist f*** off” appeared around campus, prompting responses from Jewish groups and George Washington University president Mark S. Wrighton.
“We acknowledge the hurt and harm felt by many members of the Jewish community, particularly given this occurred following Yom Kippur,” Wrighton said. “GW strongly condemns antisemitism and all forms of hatred, discrimination, and bias.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington said it is “appalled by the antisemitic flyers,” explaining that they are “extremely harmful to GW’s Jewish students and the Jewish community at large, particularly on the heels of Yom Kippur and the upcoming holiday of Sukkot.”
Stop Antisemitism, a US-based antisemitism watchdog, noted that George Washington University was given a “D” grade in its recent report assessing which colleges are safest for Jewish students.
“GW — rated amongst the bottom of schools perceived safe for Jewish students in our new report — claims incidents like these are ‘handled,'” it said
The group also pointed to several past antisemitic incidents at George Washington University, including signs accusing the university of being a “Zionist propaganda machine,” the hosting of antisemitic cartoonist, and a viral video of a George Washington University student who said, “We’re going to f****** bomb Israel bro, f*** outta here with Jewish pieces of s***.
The Algemeiner has asked George Washington University to comment on this story. It will be updated accordingly.