Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Pro-Palestinian students project anti-Israel slogans on George Washington University library

Slogans like ‘Divest from Zionist genocide now’ appeared for two hours on building named for Jewish donors

Pro-Palestinian students at George Washington University projected the words “Glory to our martyrs,” “Divest from Zionist genocide now” and other anti-Israel messages on a building named for Jewish donors.

The projections appeared Tuesday night on the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library on the university’s Washington, D.C., campus. Images of the slogans lighting up the library’s exterior were widely disseminated on both social media and traditional media

Other messages included “Free Palestine from the river to the sea” and “GW the blood of Palestine is on your hands.”

On Wednesday, the university issued a statement saying “leadership intervened to ensure that these projections were removed” and that the incident was “unauthorized” and “violated university policy.” The projected slogans “in no way reflect the views of the university,” the statement added. “We are reviewing this incident and will take any appropriate steps with respect to the individuals involved in accordance with university policies.”

The American Jewish Committee said the university’s response to “the shocking messages glorifying Hamas projected onto the university’s library is inadequate and unacceptable. Antisemitism needs to be named and condemned unequivocally and immediately. Jewish students deserve better from the administration.”

A story published online by GW’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, said the projections were the work of Students for Justice in Palestine. The Hatchet said four students used a slideshow projector to display the messages on the building for two hours despite campus police telling them to stop. The student group did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Forward.

Several projections named GW President Ellen M. Granberg, saying she “is complicit in genocide in Gaza.” Granberg had issued two statements in the days following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacres of Israeli civilians at a music festival and on kibbutzim, saying she was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the attacks and condemning Hamas’ “brutal violence” as “acts of terrorism.”

Granberg had also said in those statements that while free speech is a “foundation” of university life, “I also abhor the celebration of terrorism and attempts to perpetuate rhetoric or imagery that glorifies acts of violence. Such messages do not speak on behalf of me, our administrators, or GW.”

She acknowledged that “there is a long and complex history associated with this conflict. Still, this does not justify the evil we have collectively witnessed.”

The Hatchet quoted an anonymous representative of Students for Justice in Palestine saying that the “divestment” messages in the projections referred to GW’s investments in weapons companies. According to the progressive nonprofit Action Network, GW receives funding from and invests in Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. 

The library was originally named for Melvin Gelman, a builder, realtor, philanthropist and GW alumnus whose family established a posthumous endowment in his honor. It was renamed the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library after the death of his wife Estelle, a GW trustee. 

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version