Pro-Palestinian students and protesters at The George Washington University in D.C.'s Foggy Bottom created an encampment Thursday morning in support for Gaza and have remained there into Friday night, defying an order by campus police to move to another area.
Dozens of students set up tents in University Yard — bordered on two sides by GW's law school and by other GW buildings on the rest — to call on the university to divest financial ties with Israel, according to student newspaper The GW Hatchet.
"We've been very clear with our demands, and we've been very clear that we are here in solidarity with Gaza," said one young woman protesting, who did not want to be identified. "We are here in solidarity with Palestine."
She, and other protesters, say that solidarity is with the Palestinian people, not with Hamas. While any protest movement has extreme elements that diverge from the core cause, most of the protesters at GW say they want to keep the focus on why they're in the encampment -- the killings, and what they're calling a genocide in Gaza.
"We buy into this university, we pay money into this university and we’re asking that the university take honest true stance in acknowledging their role in the ongoing genocide," GW junior Mahmoud Beydoun said.
GW said it decided to request D.C. police assistance after multiple instructions from university police officers to relocate to another site on campus went unheeded.
The university also issued a statement saying protesters are trespassing and "any student who remains in University Yard may be placed on temporary suspension and administratively barred from campus."
Protesters said they plan to keep going. Several students told News4 they were prepared to get arrested in order to stand up for what they believe in, and others said if they are removed, that would only embolden them in their protests.
D.C. police were present early Friday morning but have not attempted to clear the encampment, and the site was calm. Barricades have gone up around the encampment, and a contingent of police officers remain nearby.
Students celebrated the first 24 hours of the "Liberation Camp" protest.
"Missing class, it's nothing compared to what the people in Gaza are going through right now," said the anonymous protester. "It's not about us, it's not about our so-called sacrifice."
On Thursday, hundreds attended a rally at University Yard, essentially the Foggy Bottom campus' main quad, a mostly grassy area crisscrossed by walkways. Protesters were wearing keffiyehs, banging on drums and chanting, "Israel is a racist state" and "GW, you will see; Palestine will be free." Some students sat between green and gray tents. Others stood along the sidewalk, chanting and holding signs.
"Everyone should be divesting from complicity in state crimes that are happening, that our taxes are paying for," Georgetown University professor Mark Lance told News4.
Counterprotester Eric Hirshfield said he tried to enter the encampment "just to see what’s going on and make sure they’re not disenfranchising the rights of others."
Leaders of the Jewish Student Association said they feel uncomfortable walking by the pro-Palestinian protests.
“A lot of people have family in Israel, and when there are slogans used that call for the destruction of where people live, it’s very intimidating,” co-President Alana Mondschein said.
“The campus climate, the protests, are just unproductive,” co-President Jacob Wise said. “There’s no effort to speak to other students who might disagree.”
Last fall they had to help replace posters of Israeli hostages at the Hillel building after someone tore them down. GW said it suspended the student involved.
The protest came just two days after students at American University held a walkout, protesting against the war in Gaza, and University of Maryland students staged a sit-in on the College Park campus.
Across the country, pro-Palestinian students are protesting over Israel’s war with Hamas as tensions increase with university officials. At Columbia University, students also encamped, while students at California State Polytechnic University barricaded inside two buildings.
At GW, video showed the words "Liberation Camp" written in chalk on the quad's brick sidewalk. Behind the encampment entrance, a sign on a tent reads, "No justice, no peace!"
A social media post showed what appeared to be a George Washington statue blindfolded and holding a Palestine flag.
The university sent an advisory to students about the First Amendment activity on the campus.
"The GW demonstration remains peaceful; however, there also are non-GW individuals on public property and the university is coordinating with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department," the advisory reads in part.
The advisory went on to say protestors may demonstrate until 7 p.m. Thursday. GW officials had asked them to move their tents to Anniversary Park due to another reservation in University Yard and final exams at the adjacent GW law school.
This is a developing story. Stay with News4 for updates.
