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George Washington U faces federal investigation over antisemitism charges after clearing professor of them
(JTA) – Little more than a week after it dismissed allegations of antisemitism against one of its professors, George Washington University will face a federal investigation over the same allegations.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will open an investigation into a federal discrimination complaint brought against the university by the pro-Israel group StandWithUs, the group said. The complaint alleges that the university did not properly respond to student reports of the professor, who teaches graduate-level psychology, making antisemitic comments in class and bringing in a guest speaker who expressed anti-Zionist views.
Opening an investigation does not necessarily mean that the department believes the complaint has merit, but pro-Israel activists still celebrated it as a symbolic victory.
The news came nine days after the university’s own investigation into the matter, conducted by a third party, had determined that student allegations of antisemitism were unfounded. The university’s investigation was also prompted by the StandWithUs complaint, but its interviews with students and reviews of recorded lectures could not corroborate any of the allegations. The investigation concluded, in addition, that StandWithUs’ definition of antisemitism “could infringe on free speech principles and academic freedom.”
The StandWithUs complaint alleges that the university did not properly respond when Israeli students said the professor, Lara Sheehi, had made dismissive comments to them, including telling one, “It’s not your fault you were born in Israel.” The students also said the professor had brought in a guest speaker for an optional lecture who expressed anti-Zionist views, and that Sheehi did not acknowledge that they felt targeted by the talk.
Sheehi has denied the allegations and accused the university of having “colluded” with StandWithUs. The university’s third-party investigation could not corroborate whether she had made the comments in question. It did find that Sheehi had “repeatedly acknowledged the students’ feelings.” The federal investigation is concerned only with whether the university responded appropriately to the student complaints.
The case has attracted both supporters and detractors across the world of higher education. Sheehi has garnered support from academic groups including the Middle East Studies Association. Meanwhile, Jewish groups have pointed to other reported instances of antisemitic behavior on George Washington’s campus over the last couple of years, including graffiti outside the campus Hillel and a damaged imitation Torah at a Jewish fraternity.
StandWithUs trumpeted the news of the federal investigation as a refutation of the university investigation’s findings. Like other pro-Israel groups that have filed legal complaints, the organization has petitioned the Department of Education to explicitly define anti-Zionist speech as antisemitic.
“University administrators have an affirmative obligation to respond adequately when students report allegations of such misconduct,” StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein said in a statement, which added that the Department of Education’s civil rights office “has recognized the need to investigate these allegations in a thorough and unbiased manner.”
The Department of Education has been playing a more active role in adjudicating campus disputes over antisemitism allegations since the Donald Trump administration expanded the department’s civil rights mandate in 2019 under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory behavior at federally-funded programs or institutions, such as public universities. Earlier this week, the office reached a resolution with the University of Vermont over a separate case, finding that administrators had failed to respond adequately to reports of antisemitism on campus — including anti-Zionist speech from students and teaching assistants.
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Mistrial Declared in Case of Students Charged After Stanford Anti-Israel Protests
FILE PHOTO: A student attends an event at a protest encampment in support of Palestinians at Stanford University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Stanford, California U.S., April 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
A judge declared a mistrial on Friday in a case of five current and former Stanford University students related to the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests when demonstrators barricaded themselves inside the school president’s office.
Twelve protesters were initially charged last year with felony vandalism, according to prosecutors who said at least one suspect entered the building by breaking a window. Police arrested 13 people on June 5, 2024, in relation to the incident and the university said the building underwent “extensive” damage.
The case was tried in Santa Clara County Superior Court against five defendants charged with felony vandalism and felony conspiracy to trespass. The rest previously accepted plea deals or diversion programs.
The jury was deadlocked. It voted nine to three to convict on the felony charge of vandalism and eight to four to convict on the felony charge to trespass. Jurors failed to reach a verdict after deliberations.
The charges were among the most serious against participants in the 2024 pro-Palestinian protest movement on US colleges in which demonstrators demanded an end to Israel’s war in Gaza and Washington’s support for its ally along with a divestment of funds by their universities from companies supporting Israel.
Prosecutors in the case said the defendants engaged in unlawful property destruction.
“This case is about a group of people who destroyed someone else’s property and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. That is against the law,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement, adding he sought a new trial.
Anthony Brass, a lawyer for one of the protesters, told the New York Times his side was not defending lawlessness but “the concept of transparency and ethical investment.”
“This is a win for these young people of conscience and a win for free speech,” Brass said, adding “humanitarian activism has no place in a criminal courtroom.”
Protesters had renamed the building “Dr. Adnan’s Office” after Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian doctor who died in an Israeli prison after months of detention.
Over 3,000 were arrested during the 2024 US pro-Palestinian protest movement, according to media tallies. Some students faced suspension, expulsion and degree revocation.
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Exclusive: FM Gideon Sa’ar to Represent Israel at 1st Board of Peace Meeting in Washington on Thursday
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar speaks next to High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas, and EU commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica as they hold a press conference on the day of an EU-Israel Association Council with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will represent the country at the inaugural meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday, i24NEWS learned on Saturday.
The arrangement was agreed upon following a request from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will not be able to attend.
Netanyahu pushed his Washington visit forward by a week, meeting with US President Donald Trump this week to discuss the Iran situation.
A U.N. Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the Board of Peace and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza and build on the ceasefire agreed in October under a Trump plan.
Under Trump’s Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.
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Two Men Jailed in UK for Islamic State-Inspired Plot to Kill Hundreds of Jews
Weapons seized from the home of Walid Saadaoui, 38, who along with Amar Hussein, 52, has been found guilty at Preston Crown Court of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community, in Britain, in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on December 23, 2025. They are due to be sentenced on Friday. Photo: Greater Manchester Police/Handout via REUTERS
Two men were jailed on Friday for plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired attack on the Jewish community in England, a plan prosecutors said could have been deadlier than December’s mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were both convicted after a trial at Preston Crown Court, which began a week after an unrelated deadly attack on a synagogue in the city of Manchester, in northwest England.
Prosecutors said the pair were Islamist extremists who wanted to use automatic firearms to kill as many Jews as they could in an attack in Manchester.
They were found guilty little more than a week after a mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in which 15 people were killed.
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu said on Friday that, had Saadaoui and Hussein carried out their plan, it “could have been very much more serious” than the attacks in Australia and Manchester.
Judge Mark Wall sentenced Saadaoui to a minimum term of 37 years and Hussein to a minimum term of 26 years, saying: “You were very close to being ready to carry out this plan.”
Hussein refused to attend his sentencing, having refused to attend most of his trial, which Wall said reflected Hussein’s cowardice, describing him as “brave enough to plan to threaten an unarmed group with an AK-47 but not sufficiently courageous to face up to what he did.”
POTENTIALLY ONE OF DEADLIEST ATTACKS ON UK SOIL
Saadaoui had arranged for two assault rifles, an automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition to be smuggled into Britain through the port of Dover when he was arrested in May 2024, Sandhu told jurors at the trial.
He added that Saadaoui planned to obtain two more rifles and another pistol, and to collect at least 900 rounds of ammunition.
“This would likely have been one of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever carried out on British soil,” Wall said.
Unbeknown to Saadaoui, however, a man known as “Farouk,” from whom he was trying to get the weapons, was an undercover operative who helped foil the plot.
Walid Saadaoui’s brother Bilel Saadaoui, 37, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism. He was sentenced to six years in jail.