Officials earlier this month barred Students for Justice in Palestine at GWU from hosting on-campus events “until further notice,” saying the group violated policy by preventing Division for Student Affairs personnel from attending programming.

SJP and five other student organizations on Wednesday claimed via Instagram that officials banned the group from hosting events on campus a week before SJP’s annual Palestinian Liberation Week after students asked Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs Debra Bright, Assistant Dean of Student Life Brian Joyce and Interim Assistant Vice Provost and Dean of Students Adam Goldstein to leave the organization’s two most recent events. A University spokesperson confirmed that officials are not currently approving SJP’s requests to host on-campus events because the group prevented DSA officials from attending an approved event.

The spokesperson said officials are “separately reviewing” incidents at recent SJP events to determine if any violated the Code of Student Conduct or other University policies. 

The Student Organization Handbook, which the University last updated on March 6, states that DSA and other officials have “unrestricted access” to any space a student organization reserves to “ensure compliance with University policies.” It is unclear what changes officials made to the 75-page document on March 6.

“SJP’s requests were not approved following actions the group took at a recent event to prevent a DSA administrator from attending,” the spokesperson said in an email. “SJP did this despite being informed in advance that the group must permit GW administrators to attend approved events.”

A representative for SJP who requested anonymity due to fear of doxxing and retaliation alleged the policy wasn’t in a prior version of the handbook, which reflects a recurring pattern of officials allegedly amending policies to target SJP for conduct violations.

The Hatchet was unable to locate previous iterations of the handbook via web archives because of its PDF format. The representative did not immediately return a request for a copy of the prior version of the handbook.

“Their issue has never been that we actually violate policy — it’s that we unequivocally support the Palestinian people in their struggle against Zionism,” the representative said in a text message.

The handbook’s opening letter states that contents in the document are subject to change. Major changes to the handbook are communicated via email and on the DSA website, but officials are able to make minor changes without sending out formal notification, the letter adds.

According to SJP’s Wednesday Instagram post, Joyce joined SJP’s film screening of “The Last Sky” — a documentary about Israel’s relations with Lebanon and Palestinian territories — on Feb. 26, and students repeatedly asked him to leave.

The post states that Joyce left but later returned with Goldstein, citing a policy that any event must be open to GW community members, which students said neither the organization nor the officials could find in the handbook at the time.

The post states that almost a week later, Bright attempted to attend the organization’s March 4 teach-in about the first Intifada, which organizers held in a location only disclosed to registered attendees. According to the post, Bright left on the condition that organizers send her the slides used during the event after students said they didn’t feel comfortable with her attending due to her alleged involvement in disciplinary hearings related to the pro-Palestinian encampment last spring.

SJP’s post also claimed that officials attempted to “coincidentally” cancel the group’s first teach-in on Feb. 24 by arguing they didn’t book the space correctly, but student organizers moved the event to a different location.

Officials suspended SJP through the fall 2024 semester and placed them on disciplinary probation until May 2025 for the group’s reported involvement in the pro-Palestinian encampment last spring, according to a recently updated list of student groups with conduct violations.

A University spokesperson said the terms of SJP’s disciplinary sanctions require that all their events receive prior approval from their adviser, Director of Student Involvement Meredith Bielaska. The spokesperson added that officials didn’t approve SJP’s requests after the group prevented a DSA administrator from attending “a recent event.” 

The University spokesperson said DSA regularly meets with student organizations, reviews their activities and attends their events to engage with and support students regardless of their disciplinary status. 

“Because of SJP’s actions, all of the organization’s requests to hold events on campus are denied until further notice. SJP has been notified accordingly,” the University spokesperson said in an email. 

The SJP representative confirmed the organization is required to meet with Bielaska, their advisor, two weeks in advance of an event to discuss details as part of its probationary terms.

SJP’s recent and upcoming programming, including the film screening, teach-in and Palestinian Liberation Week — a week dedicated to educating and mobilizing students around Palestinian rights — appear to have been approved by Bielaska, according to Engage event confirmation receipts obtained by The Hatchet. 

The representative said the organization received an email from Bielaska a few hours before the Feb. 26 film screening saying that Joyce would be attending, but she did not provide a reason. The representative said Joyce told students he was there to support them once he arrived, but organizers said his presence as a University official made other attendees uncomfortable because they can testify in student disciplinary hearings.  

“Historically, when admin show up to things, they in the future, often testify in SRR hearings, or it sometimes leads to new interpretations of the code that weren’t previously the case so that whatever we were doing now falls under a certain violation,” the representative said, referencing GW’s poster policy as an example, which the representative said didn’t exist before SJP projected messages onto Gelman Library in October 2023, according to web archives. 

The SJP representative said Joyce later joined one of the organization’s meetings with Bielaska on Feb. 28 and apologized for the interruption at the screening, which led students to assume they reached a consensus with officials that there was no policy that required administrators to attend student organizations’ programming. 

“They had agreed to that and apologized, and we thought everything was good,” the representative said.

The representative said Bielaska told them in “various other conversations” that there was pressure from outside organizations that accused SJP of possible code violations, like inciting violence.

“At no point in any of this are we physically restricting anybody’s movement, are we blocking anybody from entering a space, are we occupying the space,” the representative said. “We’re having verbal conversations with people about our understanding of the code.” 

The representative said Bielaska, who sent the email on March 7, didn’t specify a formal process to appeal the organization’s programming ban. He added SJP plans to utilize spaces off campus to continue Palestinian Liberation Week events and is preparing for possible sanctions from Conflict Education & Student Accountability. 

“At every point we have complied with all their requests and have complied with all of the policies that we’re subject to,” the representative said.

Throughout the week SJP hosted four events for Palestinian Liberation Week including panels with guests like Palestinian American author Susan Abulhawa and journalist Rania Khalek, a teach-in about education’s role in revolution and an informational session about the role of music plays in Palestinian resistance. All attendees must RSVP for the events’ locations, according to an SJP Instagram post.

The organization will also host a protest Friday at James Monroe Park across from Western Market.

Officials on Monday placed signs around the entrances of Kogan Plaza that read “GW is committed to protecting free speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to lawful expression. The university is also committed to providing a safe environment for these actions.” The sign also contained a QR code that directed students to the University’s free expression website, which contains information about GW’s protest policies.

Dean of Students Colette Coleman and Vice President for Safety and Operations Baxter Goodly also sent an email to community members Monday reiterating their right to free expression within the bounds of University policy.

Officials’ decision to temporarily suspend SJP from holding events comes as pro-Palestinian student organizers and universities nationwide are facing increased scrutiny for their handling of student protests relating to the war in Gaza.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last month that it will visit GW and nine other universities they said experienced “antisemitic incidents” since the onset of the war. The task force announced the immediate cancellation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University earlier this month. 

Earlier this month, Department of Homeland Security officials arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student and Palestinian immigrant who has been a leader of pro-Palestinian activism at the university. Since then, another student at Columbia and a Georgetown University researcher have also been detained by immigration authorities, who claim their activism promotes Hamas.