George Washington University blocked off most outdoor campus spaces on Thursday after clearing out an anti-Israel encampment from the Washington, DC campus the prior day.

Photos taken by The Algemeiner show tall fencing surrounding University Yard (U-Yard), where the almost two-week-long encampment protest took place. The company that installed the fencing has been used by the US Capitol to erect fencing in recent years, according to the GW Hatchet.

Students are unable to enter U-Yard, whether it be from H Street, 21st Street, or 20th Street. It is the primary grassy area on campus and is surrounded by multiple academic buildings — which were largely closed by GW amid the encampment, causing some classes and even finals to be canceled.

Additionally, Kogan Plaza has been fenced off since the beginning of the encampment on April 25. All three entrances remain barricaded and security ensures nobody breaches the barricades. Kogan Plaza is where many significant university events take place. It is also surrounded by the Gelman Library and includes a popular study space.

The fence surrounding Anniversary Park has also been closed and pad-locked. The only major outdoor space not completely closed to students is Square 80.

According to the GW Hatchet, U-Yard and Kogan Plaza will remain closed through commencement. No specific reason was given, but it is likely to prevent a re-occupation of any major university space.

Such fears may have arisen due to the persistence of the protesters as they were being cleared out and even afterward. Within 48 hours of clearing the encampment, its organizers have already planned or carried out three new protests.

At approximately 3:00 am on Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) raided the anti-Israel encampment. Previously, Washington, DC’s Mayor, Muriel Bowser, did not allow the encampment to be cleared — despite a request to do so from GW — citing bad optics, according to The Washington Post. 

However, the encampment broke school rules and was unlawful from the beginning, GW President Ellen Granberg noted. It also became increasingly hostile and volatile. Videos showed protesters calling for the execution of Granberg, along with other GW administrators. They also raised the Palestinian flag over U-Yard and desecrated a statue of George Washington.

“Harassing and degrading people based on their beliefs or background, assaulting police officers, illegally occupying and destroying university property, and displaying violent imagery and language are simply unacceptable,” Granberg said in a statement on Wednesday.

After three warnings, the MPD moved in to arrest those who did not leave. When they continued not to comply, at least two officers used pepper spray while confronting those breaking school rules and the law.

Granberg thanked the MPD, writing, “We are also grateful for MPD’s continued assistance and the tireless efforts of our GWPD, security, and maintenance personnel.”

The post George Washington University Barricades Nearly All Outdoor Campus Spaces Following Anti-Israel Encampment Raid first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Masses of new people have joined a pro-Hamas “encampment” at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) following an impasse in negotiations between the administration, students, and faculty over whether the school will divest from Israel and grant amnesty for those who have violated the school’s code of conduct — a key demand the protesters have put forward in exchange for ending the nearly three-week-long demonstration.

A crush of people on Wednesday “expanded” the encampment to cover more school property after conversations with the administration stalled, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, a campus newspaper. Local police equipped with riot gear prepared to clear them from the area, but ultimately stood down for reasons that remained unclear.

Following this escalation, Penn increased security in other areas of campus and has, for now, declined to ask police for help in quelling the demonstration. In the interim, Van Pelt Library’s main entrance has been made inaccessible to students and no one, including Jewish students and staff, is allowed to enter the Penn Hillel building, the campus newspaper reported.

“Penn continues to focus on the safety of our campus, including expanding security presence in response to the expansion of the encampment, despite our efforts to resolve this situation,” the university said in a statement issued on Wednesday night.

The development came just a day after Penn’s interim president, Larry Jameson, suggested that the demonstrators have exhausted the school’s tolerance for a situation that Jameson described as dangerous and disruptive of university business. He cited that in addition to being a safety hazard, the pro-Hamas mob has committed acts of vandalism, defacing a statue of Benjamin Franklin, one of the United States’ Founding Fathers, and “The Button,” a sculpture built in the early 1980s.

Right now @penn three individuals deface the Ben Franklin statue while putting up the Hamas upside triangle. This triangle is Hamas’s symbol for who they murder.

They also put up “avenge Hind” in reference to Columbia. How is @penn allowing this? pic.twitter.com/4N0J1beTBc

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) May 9, 2024

“The encampment should end. It is in violation of our policies, it is disrupting campus operations and events, and it causing fear for many in our large, diverse community, especially among our Jewish students,” Jameson said in a statement. “But any response to the encampment must balance possible escalation of the current situation with the need to protect the safety and rights of everyone.”

Jameson then expressed fear about what would happen during a clash between police and protesters, explaining that Penn is “an open campus in a large city.” However, he added, “I am distressed and disappointed by the actions of the protesters, which violate our rules and goals.”

The administration has been negotiating with students and faculty leading the protest for several days, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported earlier this week. In addition to divestment from Israel, leaders of the anti-Zionist camp are demanding that the university vacate a suspension of Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine, which the school shut down after multiple rules violations. While the paper did not state which conditions the university has refused to accept, it reported earlier in the week that Penn has filed disciplinary charges against nine students — an action the protesters have deemed unacceptable.

“Due to the administration’s continued bad-faith negotiations in our meeting this afternoon, the Gaza Solidarity encampment expands!” Penn Against the Occupation, which is operating in defiance of its suspension, said in a social media post on Wednesday. “We need you on College Green now!”

On Thursday, Neetu Arnold — a research fellow at the National Association of Scholars and author of Hijacked: The Capture of America’s Middle East Studies Centers — told The Algemeiner that Penn administrators narrowed their options by choosing not to clear the encampment sooner. Arnold has visited it several times herself and watched conditions there deteriorate in real time.

“Penn administrators should have addressed the encampments in its early days when the situation was still relatively tame,” Arnold said. “There were already signs that things would escalate. When I visited campus on the second day of the demonstration, protesters had already vandalized the Ben Franklin statue in front of College Hall. The university could have taken action then. Instead, they issued empty threats, and now the protesters aren’t taking them seriously.”

The University of Pennsylvania is one of many schools where students have taken over sections of campuses and refused to leave unless administrators condemn and boycott Israel. Footage of the protests has shown demonstrators chanting in support of Hamas, calling for the destruction of Israel, and even threatening to harm members of the Jewish community on campus. In many cases, activists have also lambasted the US and Western civilization more broadly.

Antisemitism fueled by anti-Zionism exploded at the university long before Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7. In September, it hosted “The Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” which included speakers such as Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta, who once promoted antisemitic tropes, saying in an interview, “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.” Another controversial figure invited to the event was former Pink Floyd vocalist Roger Waters, whose long record of anti-Jewish snipes was the subject of a documentary released last year.

Penn’s hosting of “Palestine Writes” festival took place, an unidentified male walked into the university’s Hillel building behind a staffer and shouted “F—k the Jews” and “Jesus Christ is king!” before overturning tables, podium stands, and chairs, according to students and school officials who spoke with The Algemeiner. Days earlier, just before the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, a giant swastika was graffitied in the basement of the university’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

One day before the event took place, an unidentified male walked into the university’s Hillel building behind a staffer and shouted “F—k the Jews” and “Jesus Christ is king!” before overturning tables, podium stands, and chairs, according to students and school officials who spoke with The Algemeiner. Days earlier, just before the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, a giant swastika was graffitied in the basement of the university’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design.

Former Penn president Elizabeth Magill, who refused to stop the university from hosting the festival, resigned from her post in December, ending a 17-month tenure marked by controversy over what critics described as an insufficient response to surging antisemitism on campus.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Pro-Hamas Encampment at University of Pennsylvania Grows Larger first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

An Israeli go-kart driver won an international championship race in Slovakia recently, but instead of raising his trophy at the podium after his win, he held up a photo of his sister, who is still being held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.

Guy Albag, 15, secured first place at the CEE Championship in Slovakia on Sunday and dedicated his win to his older sister, Liri, 19, who remains in Hamas captivity. Fellow Israeli driver Yam Pinto, who won third place in the same race, also ditched his trophy to instead hold up a photo of Albag’s sister on the podium.

After his win, Albag took to Instagram and wrote a heartfelt post addressed to Liri.

“My sister I miss you so much just waiting for that day when you come to us with your smile and laughs miss your voice,” he wrote. “They told me you said you didn’t want me to stop racing I hope you come back as soon as possible and see me win.”

In addition to murdering about 1,200 people during their Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists also abducted 252 individuals as hostages. Liri Albag is one of the roughly 130 captives to remain in captivity in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas, seven months after the attack. She was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz post in southern Israel where she was serving as an observer.

The Daily Mail previously reported that the Israel Defense Forces identified Albag’s DNA from splatters of blood found in a civilian home in Gaza where she was held captive at one point. Hamas also released a video on Telegram hours after Albag’s capture that showed her alive but scared, and sitting against a concrete wall with her hands tied behind her.

The post Israeli Go-Kart Driver Ditches Championship Trophy at Podium for Picture of Sister Kidnapped by Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.