George Washington University is taking disciplinary action against student leaders of the anti-Israel encampment set up on the school’s main lawn.
The ongoing anti-Israel encampment at GW began on Thursday, and the university said it notified multiple students of their interim suspensions on Friday. Students are protesting GW’s financial ties to companies that do business in Israel and U.S. support for Israel’s war effort against Hamas.
“Unlike many demonstrations in the past, this encampment violated several university policies, including the unauthorized use of reserved space, which was held for the GW Law finals, and a failure to comply with administrative directions,” GW said in an update on Friday.
The school told demonstrators on Friday afternoon that “their presence and conduct in University Yard continued to be in violation of several university policies and they were trespassing,” the statement continues.
“The university also said that any student who remains in University Yard may be placed on temporary suspension and administratively barred from campus. Several students have already been notified of their suspensions.”
GW is a private university located in the downtown D.C. area. School president Ellen Granberg and provost Christopher Bracey delivered a similar statement about the protest on Thursday. They condemned the disruptive protest for occupying campus and blocking access to certain school buildings.
Anti-Israel organizers with the Washington, D.C. coalition of Students for Justice in Palestine, a nationwide pro-Hamas campus network, said on social media that seven students have received suspensions because of the encampment.
GW is restricting outside agitators from accessing campus after a significant portion of the protesters on Thursday were students attending nearby universities and activists affiliated with outside left-wing organizations, as National Review previously reported.
Protest leaders and the crowd at large called for an “intifada revolution” on Thursday, a reference to a series of violent and terroristic Palestinian uprisings against Israel.
“We don’t want no two-state. We want 48,” they chanted at one point.
Many of the demonstrators wore masks and keffiyehs to cover their faces, and activists handed them out to those who did not come prepared. The university’s SJP chapter is continuing to call for students to “flood” the campus and show support for Gaza at the encampment site.
Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department declined requests from GW officials to help campus police clear the encampment on Friday morning, the Washington Post reported, citing two city officials.
Police told the outlet the school asked for their support and they “will continue to monitor the situation.” No arrests have been made and no violent incidents have taken place.
The encampment was initially given a 7 p.m. deadline on Thursday to disband, but police did not clear the area or interfere with the demonstration when the time came. Protesters kept the demonstration going long into the night after the deadline passed.
GW law school finals on Thursday afternoon were moved to a different location on campus to prevent the loud chanting from interfering with test-taking, two students previously told NR.