Final month, nameless Jewish George Washington College college students and a pro-Israel group accused the college of antisemitism in a grievance filed with the U.S. Schooling Division’s Workplace for Civil Rights.
This week, Palestine Authorized introduced it has filed an Workplace for Civil Rights grievance accusing the college of “anti-Palestinian racism.”
The group didn’t present a replica of the grievance, nevertheless it stated in a information launch Wednesday that it’s representing three unnamed college students “who’ve every been the goal of anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment by fellow college students, professors, GW Hillel and/or GW directors.”
“The grievance alleges how, for years, Palestinian college students and college students perceived to be Palestinian have been denied entry to psychological well being providers, falsely accused of committing crimes, disproportionately investigated by campus police, put by months-long disciplinary processes for infractions that non-Palestinian college students admitted to and subjected to racist anti-Palestinian feedback at school,” the discharge says.
GW Hillel, a company for Jewish college students, didn’t present a remark Thursday.
“The college has not seen the grievance referenced,” a GW spokeswoman stated in an e mail. “The George Washington College strongly condemns hatred, discrimination and bias in all varieties, and we’re dedicated to fostering an setting through which the whole group feels protected and freed from harassment, hostility or marginalization.”
A part of the grievance, based on Palestine Authorized’s information launch, includes what occurred in Lara Sheehi’s class after she invited a visitor lecturer to the college. Sheehi, an assistant professor of medical psychology, is additionally on the middle of the grievance from the pro-Israel group, StandWithUs.
“The [unnamed] pupil stated she felt unsafe in a program that might invite a speaker who endorsed violence towards Israeli civilians and who, due to this fact, might have a good time the homicide of her Israeli kin,” the StandWithUs grievance says. “In response, [during the class] Professor Sheehi known as the coed’s remark a ‘damaging Islamophobic anti-Palestinian’ remark and added that ‘a stone is nothing in comparison with a military.’”
The Palestine Authorized information launch says “anti-Palestinian college students took over [Sheehi’s] class the next Monday, making quite a few anti-Palestinian statements, together with … that Palestinian civilians killed by the Israeli military are terrorists.”
The discharge stated the grievance additionally “explains how GW canceled a digital processing house for Palestinian college students after Hillel (a pro-Israel campus group) complained.”
Radhika Sainath, senior workers lawyer for Palestine Authorized, stated the house was provided after 2021 Israeli bombings. A pupil anonymously instructed Inside Increased Ed that she needed to make use of the house after being hit with a tear fuel canister and having rifles pointed at her.
