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George Mason University Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine, Pursues Criminal Investigations of Members
George Mason University students walking across campus on December 12, 2024. Photo: Dion J. Pierre/The Algemeiner
George Mason University (GMU) has reportedly suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and pursued a criminal investigation of two female members who are suspected of being involved in an incident of property destruction.
According to a statement by SJP, the suspension followed George Mason Police and Safety Headquarter’s execution of a warrant to search a home shared by the students — who are sisters, as well as SJP’s current co-president and a former president — a measure reportedly aided by the Fairfax County Police Department. Following the search, GMU reportedly criminally trespassed the students subjected to it for as many as four years and revoked SJP’s university recognition.
Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the search uncovered “four weapons unsecured, along with more than 20 magazines with 30 bullets each,” Hamas paraphernalia, and “arm patches” which said “kill them where they stand” — a phrase others have translated as “kill Jews where they stand.” The weapons are reportedly owned by the students’ father and brother, and since being found, the Office of the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney has petitioned to bar the men from purchasing anymore arms and ammunition. A judge has denied that request, however.
The Post added that the FBI is involved in the investigation. The university has so far declined to comment on the specifics of the matter, but Paul Allvin, its vice president and chief brand officer, has said, “George Mason’s Code of Student Conduct explains that the code applies to all student organizations and when a student organization will be held responsible for the conduct of its members.”
Despite that an arsenal of weapons and extremist materials was found by law enforcement, SJP has maintained that GMU officials are violating the students’ right to a neutral disciplinary process.
“These notices were delivered by Mason PD, and, if left in place, will effectively expel both students from Mason, thus violating their right to an education without due process afforded to all students under the Code of Student Conduct,” SJP said in a statement issued via social media. “The university outwardly portrays itself as a bastion of diversity, a hub for activism and expression, all while internally repressing anti-genocide organizers and disregarding due process.”
It added, “The contradictions are glaring. This false image is crumbling because of the power students hold,” and threatened the university with further action, proclaiming, “Based in the heart of empire, our coalition serves as a united front that directly confronts the zionist [sic] project; nothing can be done that will ever silence students from continuing to resist these deadly regimes … Repression will only breed resistance.”
Earlier this month, 90 far-left and pro-Hamas organizations — including Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapters at George Washington University, Georgetown University, New York University, and Sarah Lawrence College — signed a letter imploring the university to restore the students to good standing. A section of it titled “Here is what we know so far,” mentioned nothing about the stockpile of weapons and ammunition linked to the students.
“We have learned that similar police raids against non-violent student activists have recently taken place at the University of Pennsylvania as well as other campuses,” the letter said. “This pattern is extremely troubling and calls people of conscience to action.”
George Mason University, ensconced in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, is not the first school locked in a fraught relationship with its Student for Justice in Palestine chapter, a group which is linked to terror organizations in the Middle East and has convulsed college campuses across the US with riotous demonstrations, intimidation, and lawbreaking.
Tufts University in Massachusetts recently extended a suspension of its SJP chapter until January 2027 after first deactivating the group in October, a school spokesman confirmed with The Algemeiner last month.
In explaining its decision, Tufts cited “multiple violations of university policies,” including SJP’s promoting violence and calling on peers to participate. Also, according to a disciplinary letter shared by SJP, days ahead of a celebratory demonstration it planned for the anniversary of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, the group posted a picture of individuals with assault rifles, instructing students to “Join the Student Intifada” and to “escalate” during its event. School officials said the inciting content left them “no choice but to impose” a punishment.
The University of Michigan has also reportedly initiated disciplinary proceedings against one of its most outspoken and controversial anti-Israel groups, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) — an SJP spinoff — the result of which may be a suspension of up to four years.
Meanwhile, the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities has reportedly suspended and demanded financial restitution from seven pro-Hamas activists who were arrested for commandeering the Morrill Hall administrative building on Oct. 21, an action which aimed to pressure school officials into enacting a boycott of Israel. According to a statement from SJP and other anti-Israel campus groups posted on social media, seven of eight students charged with misconducting themselves on that day have been “found guilty” by a university disciplinary tribunal. Each has been fined about $5,500, the statement further alleged, and suspended for periods ranging from one to five semesters.
“Alongside arbitrary suspensions, the university intends to withhold the transcripts of those arrested,” the statement continued. “This means for the duration of the suspension the students are unable to transfer to a different institution without forfeiting the credits they have rightfully earned and paid for. To even be readmitted after suspensions, the students have to do 20 hours of community service and write a 5-10 page essay about the ‘difference between vandalism and protest.’”
A spokesman for the university declined to comment on the matter, saying “federal and state privacy laws prevent the university from confirming or commenting on any specifics related to individual student discipline.” Instead the university pointed The Algemeiner to the university’s Student Conduct Code and its Administrative Policy: Resolving Alleged Student Conduct Code Violations, as well as the Twin Cities campus-specific Student Conduct Code Procedure, noting that “together, these outline how disciplinary processes work, from collecting and investigating facts, to initial recommendations regarding discipline, through appellate rights and hearing options.”
This latest incident comes amid concerns that the over 150 pro-Hamas groups operating on colleges campuses and elsewhere across the US are planting the seeds of domestic terrorism.
“The movement contains militant elements pushing it toward a wider, more severe campaign focused on property destruction and violence properly described as domestic terrorism,” researcher Ryan Mauro wrote in a recently published report, titled Marching Toward Violence: The Domestic Anti-Israeli Protest Movement, a project of the Capital Research Center (CRC). “It demands the ‘dismantlement’ of America’s ‘colonialist,’ ‘imperialist,’ or ‘capitalist,’ system, often calling for the US to be abolished as a country.”
Drawing on statements issued and actions taken by SJP and their collaborators, Mauro made the case that toolkits published by SJP herald Hamas for perpetrating mass casualties of civilians; SJP has endorsed Iran’s attacks on Israel as well as its stated intention to overturn the US-led world order; and other groups under its umbrella have called on followers to “Bring the Intifada Home.” Such activities, the report explained, accelerated after Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, which pro-Hamas groups perceived as an inflection point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an opportunity. By flooding the internet and college campuses with agitprop and staging activities — protests or vandalism — they hoped to manufacture a critical mass of youth support for their ideas, thus creating an army of revolutionaries willing to adopt Hamas’s aims as their own.
The result has been a series of striking incidents seen in academia throughout 2024 fall semester since Hamas’s onslaught.
Recently, pro-Hamas activists at the University of Michigan vandalized the car and home of a Jewish member of the school’s board of regents early Monday morning.
“Divest. Free Palestine,” said a message the group graffitied on a Chevrolet Traverse owned by the wife of Jordan Acker, a Jewish lawyer who describes himself as a center-left Zionist and supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Next to it the vandals spray-painted an inverted triangle, which has become a common symbol at pro-Hamas rallies. The Palestinian terrorist group, which rules Gaza, has used inverted red triangles in its propaganda videos to indicate Israeli targets about to be attacked. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “the red triangle is now used to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence.”
Additionally, Acker confirmed with The Algemeiner on Tuesday, the protesters breached his property and threw what he believes were glass bottles filled with urine through his window.
In October, when Jews around the world mourned on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 atrocities, a Harvard University student group called on pro-Hamas activists to “Bring the war home” and proceeded to vandalize a campus administrative building. The group members, who described themselves as “anonymous,” later said in a statement, “We are committed to bringing the war home and answering the call to open up a new front here in the belly of the beast.”
On the same day, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) issued a similar statement, saying “now is the time to escalate,” adding, “Harvard’s insistence on funding slaughter only strengthens our moral imperative and commitment to our demands.”
Last month, it was revealed that a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student wrote a journal article which argued that violence is a legitimate method of effecting political change and, moreover, advancing the pro-Palestinian movement.
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, pro-Hamas activists have already demonstrated that they are willing to hurt people to achieve their goals.
Last year, in California, an elderly Jewish man was killed when an anti-Zionist professor employed by a local community college allegedly pushed him during an argument. At Cornell University in upstate New York, a student threatened to rape and kill Jewish female students and “shoot up” the campus’ Hillel center. Violence, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), was most common at universities in the state of California, where an anti-Zionist activist punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Says Not Ruling Out Diplomacy to Stop Iran Nuclear Weapon
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar attends a joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani (not pictured), in Rome, Italy, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
Israel is not ruling out a diplomatic path to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday, adding that there were signs that there could be indirect talks between Tehran and the United States.
“We don’t hold discussions with the Iranians, as you know, but they made it clear they are ready to an indirect negotiations with the US, and I will not be surprised if such negotiations will start.”
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, but Israel, the US, and several European countries have argued there is no civilian-use justification for the Iranian regime’s enriching large amounts of uranium to near weapons-grade levels.
The post Israeli Foreign Minister Says Not Ruling Out Diplomacy to Stop Iran Nuclear Weapon first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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This Book on the Jewish Connection to Israel Is a Must Read
An aerial view of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Ben M. Freeman’s The Jews: An Indigenous People deserves a spot on every Jewish person’s bookshelf, but especially Jews engaged in fighting the war in defense of Israel on campuses and elsewhere.
As the latest installment in his Jewish Pride trilogy, this book builds upon his previous explorations of Jewish identity and internalized anti-Jewishness, presenting a compelling argument for Jewish indigeneity to the Land of Israel — stressing this concept not only as essential to rebutting charges that Israel is a “settler-colonial” endeavor, but also as essential to Jewish identity and self-understanding.
The book is not only a historical analysis, but a call to action for Jews to reclaim their indigenous status with pride and conviction.
Freeman establishes his central thesis at the start: Jews are an indigenous people of the Land of Israel, and systematically dismantles the misconceptions that frame Jews solely as a religious group or as a people defined by exile and victimhood. Instead, he presents them as a distinct ethnonational group whose cultural, spiritual, and historical roots are deeply embedded in their ancestral homeland.
Importantly, his approach aligns with the framework actually used by global indigenous movements everywhere else, which assert indigeneity based on historical continuity, cultural persistence, and connection to the land, among other factors. Without the double standards that are all too frequently applied to the Jews, the case for Jewish indigeneity is actually quite cut and dry.
In particular, Freeman dedicates significant attention to the United Nations’ criteria for indigeneity, demonstrating how Jews meet these standards nearly perfectly. I say “nearly” because of the seven key criteria, one does fail to apply — namely the criterion that the “indigenous” people must be a minority in that land. But, as he rightly points out, this criterion is absurd: should an indigenous people who manage to reclaim their land suddenly no longer count as indigenous?
One wonders — although the book does not address this — if that criterion was adopted specifically to exclude Jewish indigeneity to the Land of Israel.
Freeman backs up his argument with historical discussions that are both thorough and accessible. He takes the reader on a journey through Jewish history, from the early origins of the Israelites in the land that would become Israel, through the ancient Jewish kingdoms, the destruction of the Second Temple, and the subsequent diasporic experiences. His discussion of the Hasmonean period and the Bar Kokhba revolt highlights the Jews’ continuous struggle to maintain sovereignty over their homeland. This history directly refutes the Anti-Zionists’ claim that Jewish connection to Israel is a modern political construct rather than an intrinsic and ancient reality.
And this isn’t just a history book. Freeman demonstrates how the denial of Jewish indigeneity fuels contemporary Jew-hate. He critiques the ways in which colonial frameworks have been misapplied to Israel and Zionism, showing how anti-Zionist rhetoric relies on distortions of Jewish history. He argues that rejecting Jewish indigeneity is not only intellectually dishonest, but also serves to weaken Jewish identity and agency.
Through this analysis, he makes a compelling case that reclaiming Jewish indigeneity is an act of empowerment and resistance against anti-Jewish erasure. This is one of the book’s most powerful contributions: it does not simply present historical facts, but actively seeks to reshape Jewish consciousness and self-perception.
Freeman’s writing is both scholarly and deeply personal. He weaves personal anecdotes and reflections into the broader historical and political discussion, grounding the text in a lived Jewish experience. Most originally (and refreshingly), he closes the book with a half-dozen personal interviews of people with quite varied Jewish identities, ultimately reinforcing his main theoretical points. The book’s balance of scholarship and emotional resonance means it has something to offer to scholars and laypersons alike. It fills a crucial gap in Jewish discourse, providing Jews with the language and framework to articulate their identity in a world that often seeks to erase or distort it.
At a time when Jewish history and rights are under increasing scrutiny and attack, The Jews: An Indigenous People offers a powerful and necessary response. Every Jew should read it, and every Jewish university student should have it in their toolkit.
Andrew Pessin is a philosophy professor and author, most recently, of Israel Breathes, World Condemns: The Trajectory of Campus Antisemitism to October 7, and the Aftermath. More information about him and his work is available at www.andrewpessin.com.
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How the Red Cross Is Facilitating Palestinian ‘Pay-for-Slay’
Palestinian terrorists and members of the Red Cross gather near vehicles on the day Hamas hands over deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, to the Red Cross, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
The International Committee of the Red Cross continues to facilitate rewards to imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, thus playing a central role in providing an “economic incentive” for terrorism.
Last week, the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs alerted families of Palestinian terrorist prisoners about the need to obtain Red Cross documentation to prove the terrorists’ eligibility for Pay-for-Slay salaries.
What is shocking is that when the terrorists’ families approach the Red Cross for the document, the Red Cross knows that the sole purpose of this document is to enable the terrorists to receive their terror rewards. And yet the Red Cross cooperates.
The following is the announcement that the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs posted on its Facebook page:
Posted text: “The period of financial aid for the prisoners [i.e., terrorists] whose names appear below ends in March 2025.
The families of the detainees among them must bring a document from the [Red] Cross or the most recent court session for those who have not been issued a Red Cross document.
As for the administrative detainees, they must bring the administrative extension together with the [Red] Cross document, if it was issued.
This is [to be done] by April 5, 2025 at the latest.
[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, March 20, 2025]
Over a year ago, Palestinian Media Watch exposed that PLO Prisoners’ Affairs Commission Director Qadura Fares said that the Red Cross document is “the document that we established in our [prisoners’ law] as a main document [to confirm salary eligibility]” [Official PA TV, January 31, 2024].
Since the Red Cross plays such a central role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its terrorists, the Red Cross has great leverage. It could certainly condition its assistance to the PA’s terrorist prisoners on having the PA/Hamas permit it to visit the Israeli hostages. This should be a fundamental Red Cross demand and condition to the PA, as well as a basic demand by Israel to the Red Cross.
Itamar Marcus is Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s Founder and Director. Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
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