Students and faculty from universities around the Washington, D.C., area began a joint demonstration on the George Washington University (GWU) campus early Thursday morning, continuing nationwide protests against the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hundreds of protesters, including some university faculty, erected tents in the center of the GWU campus. The encampment, about a half-mile from the White House, follows a similar strategy to the Columbia University protests that sparked a national movement and garnered political attention.
Protest organizers call on the Biden administration to oppose arms sales to Israel and support a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, and also call on GWU and other universities that could profit from the conflict. It called for a halt to investments in weapons manufacturers and companies.
The student-faculty coalition also includes representatives from Georgetown University. American University; George Mason University; University of Maryland. University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Howard University; and Gallaudet University organizers announced. social media posts.
“As our people discover mass graves of martyrs in Gaza, we must continue to work hard to end systematic cooperation in genocide,” organizers said, noting the discovery of mass graves in Gaza hospitals this week. “It is a moral obligation to suspend normal business operations.”
GWU administrators said Thursday that the demonstration was peaceful but called on protesters to move to other parts of campus. Administrators added that non-GWU students are not allowed to demonstrate on campus and protests must cease by 7 p.m.
“At 7 p.m. students will be asked to remove their tents and disperse.” the university saidciting a policy prohibiting overnight camping on campus.
On Thursday morning, about 30 Georgetown faculty members joined a march of more than 100 students participating in the GWU protest. This was reported by GW Hatchet..
Protesters set up tents and sleeping bags and clashed with university administrators and D.C. police over a 7 p.m. deadline to disperse.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), a GWU alumnus, condemned the protests on Thursday..
“Alumni will never allow that to happen,” he said of demands for the university to divest from Israeli interests.
Moskowitz is among the members of Congress who have criticized the nationwide student protests as anti-Semitic. He joined a group of Jewish Democrats at Columbia University on Monday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) visited Columbia on Wednesday and similarly criticized the protests.
“What we are seeing on college campuses across the country is disgusting and unacceptable, and it is a call to action by every leader, every political official, and every person of conscience in this country. People have to speak up and say, ‘This is not who we are in America,”’ Johnson said in a Fox News appearance before his trip to Colombia.
He added: “There has to be accountability. That’s what my colleagues and I will work on.”
Hundreds of students have been arrested for protests across the country in recent days, including more than 100 at Columbia University, more than 100 at Emerson College, more than 50 at the University of Texas at Austin, and more than 50 at Yale University. More than 40 people, including dozens more at universities. University of Southern California.
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