US Justice Dept. finds George Washington University ‘deliberately indifferent’ to antisemitism

The US Department of Justice says George Washington University ignored campus antisemitism in violation of federal civil rights protections.

Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice, informs the university of the department’s findings in a letter to the university president, Ellen M. Granberg.

The letter says that the university in Washington, DC, was informed of discrimination against Jewish, Israeli American and Israeli students and was “was deliberately indifferent to the complaints it received, the misconduct that occurred, and the harms that were suffered by its students and faculty.”

It says that the university’s handling of the harassment violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination in entities that receive federal funding, such as universities, including GWU.

In one example cited in the letter, students at GWU set up an anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protest encampment on campus in the spring of 2024.

The department’s investigation found that Jewish students were harassed, intimidated, and assaulted by protesters, making them afraid to attend class.

One Jewish student said he was surrounded by protesters, threatened, and told to leave the area. An assistant dean told him to leave because he was “antagonizing and provoking the crowd,” the letter says.

Protesters also shouted antisemitic slurs at other Jewish students while they were walking on campus, forcing them from the area. A Jewish counter-protester who held up an Israeli flag was surrounded by demonstrators to prevent him from moving, while a campus police officer told the Jewish student to leave for his safety, the letter says.

Protesters shouted “Zionist go die,” Zionists go to hell,” and “Hamas are freedom fighters” at another Jewish student, the letter says.

The Department of Justice says it intends to enforce the civil rights law against GWU, without providing specifics on the enforcement. The department offers to negotiate with the university to reach a “voluntary resolution,” setting an August 22 deadline for starting a dialogue.