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Students for Justice in Palestine suspended at George Washington University, adding to a growing trend
(JTA) — George Washington University has suspended Students for Justice in Palestine for at least 90 days, making it the third U.S. college to curtail the group’s operations this month.
A new pro-Palestinian student group has already been announced and is staging a rally to support the suspended SJP chapter.
George Washington University made international headlines last month when members of the pro-Palestinian student group screened anti-Israel messages including “Glory To Our Martyrs,” “Divestment From Zionist Genocide Now” and “Free Palestine From The River To The Sea” on the outer wall of the Gelman Library, named for two prominent local Jewish figures.
University president Ellen Granberg said the next day that the projections were antisemitic and violated university policy. Now, administrators say an investigation confirmed the violations and the group would be suspended as a result.
“The university determined that SJP’s actions violated university policies, including the Gelman Building Use Guidelines and the university’s policy against non-compliance, as SJP initially refused to comply with university officials’ directives to end the projections,” the administration said in a statement issued Monday. “As a result, effective immediately, the university has prohibited SJP from participating in activities on campus.”
The group will not be able sponsor or organize on-campus activities or use any university facilities for at least the next 90 days. It also cannot post communications on university property until May 20, 2024, the end of the school year.
The suspension adds GWU to a growing list of schools where SJP has been reined in since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking hundreds of hostages. The national SJP organization praised the attack, causing an array of Jewish groups and lawmakers to press universities to stop funding the group’s local chapters.
On Nov. 6, Brandeis University permanently banned Students for Justice in Palestine, saying the group “openly supports Hamas.” Last week, Columbia University suspended both Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace for violating university policies and expressing “threatening rhetoric and intimidation.”
In addition, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ordered public universities in that state to “deactivate” SJP chapters, though state officials said last week that had not happened.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, speaking at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing Wednesday afternoon, praised universities that had cracked down on their SJP chapters.
“Now we have seen some administrators step up,” Greenblatt said. “Today GW announced that they are suspending the SJP chapter for violating the conduct code at GW. It happened last week at Columbia University. At Brandeis they actually expelled them. But I don’t think there should be a place on any campus for organizations like SJP that threaten people based on their ethnicity or faith or nationality.”
SJP members at George Washington University told the GW Hatchet student newspaper that they saw the crackdown on their chapter as part of a disturbing trend.
“We see this very clearly as being a political response to a growing wave of backlash and repression towards Palestinian organizing, but specifically the Palestinian student movement that’s been happening the past few weeks,” a student representative told the newspaper under the condition of anonymity, citing the risk of harassment.
Pro-Palestinian students at George Washington have already announced the formation of a new group, the Student Coalition for Palestine, which says it is a “coalition of student organizations struggling towards the liberation of Palestine and an end to GW’s complicity in genocide and settler colonialism.“
The Student Coalition for Palestine is organizing a protest on Wednesday in solidarity with SJP, demanding that the university reinstate the suspended group.
“We stand against Zionist intimidation tactics. We stand against the repression of the growing student movement against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We demand that GW reinstate SJP immediately,” the new group wrote in a social media post calling on supporters to bring face coverings and noisemakers to a rally at the heart of the school’s Washington, D.C. campus.
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The post Students for Justice in Palestine suspended at George Washington University, adding to a growing trend appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.