Faculty, staff and students from GW and other D.C. universities marched to the White House on Thursday to protest the one-year anniversary of the Metropolitan Police Department clearing the pro-Palestinian encampment in University Yard.
Protesters gathered at James Monroe Park on I Street at noon before marching past U-Yard and to the White House, holding “Hands off our students” signs and chanting “Professors united will never be defeated” as they condemned the anniversary of MPD clearing the pro-Palestinian encampment. Organizers from GW Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine called on GW to ban immigration agents from entering University buildings and for officials to divest from companies with financial ties to Israel.
Senior Manny Blanco, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, said he participated in the protest to commemorate the anniversary of MPD’s “raid” on “Shohada Square” — the name protesters gave to U-Yard during the encampment — and denounce President Donald Trump’s “campaign of terror” against non-citizen students.
“It was important for the faculty of all the different District universities to recognize the one year anniversary of the raid in Shohada Square and U-Yard at GW, and that was something that affected students across the DMV,” Blanco said. “Professors, faculty and staff across the DMV felt that it was really important to come out here and say our demands haven’t changed.”
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including faculty, staff and students, staged a 13-day encampment in U-Yard last spring to protest the war in Gaza and the University’s investments with companies that have ties to Israel. MPD arrested more than 30 protesters last May, including at least six GW students, when they cleared the encampment.
“At GW, they have continuously repressed pro-Palestinian students and Palestinian students of specific Arab American identities,” Blanco said in his speech to the protesters. “It is no secret that GW has not only enabled the repression of Palestinian students. It has caused it. It has partook in it, and it has continued to do so the same way Columbia has.”
In his speech, Blanco read a letter written in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center by Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who ICE agents arrested on March 8 and plan to deport, which Khalil said was due to his involvement as a negotiator in pro-Palestinian activities on Columbia’s campus. On April 11, an immigration judge in Louisiana — where Khalil is detained — ruled he can be deported as a “national security risk,” but legal hurdles remain as Khalil’s attorney informed a New Jersey federal judge he plans to appeal the decision.
Blanco said he came to the protest to demand GW ban local police and immigration agents from entering campus buildings because the University has the power to deny the request of agents as a private institution.
Immigration agents cannot enter nonpublic areas of the university — such as individual offices, laboratories, conference rooms, residence halls, classrooms or any spaces secured by locks or GWorld tap access — without a warrant, according to a memo from the GW Office of President and Vice Counsel. Public areas at GW include outdoor spaces and areas like lobbies or building entryways that do not require special access.
“GW should not be complicit,” Blanco said. “They should not comply with the White House and the current administration’s effort to repress Palestinian speech.”
The U.S. Department of Justice antisemitism task force announced in February it will visit GW and nine other universities that reported “antisemitic incidents.” University officials have responded to the DOJ probe and agreed to participate in any inquiry by the Trump administration, according to a report by the Washington Post in late April.
Around 12:20 p.m., demonstrators stopped on H Street in front of U-Yard, where officials had closed the gates, and began giving speeches as at least 10 MPD officers on bikes and six trailing police vehicles escorted them. At least seven GWPD officers stood in front of the fences during the demonstration to monitor the protesters.
A demonstration speaker who identified themselves as a GW alum and faculty member for a decade said the encampment was the “most beautiful” two weeks they had “ever witnessed” at the University because it was a time of people “coming together” and showing a “commitment to Palestine.” They said the use of “violence” during the encampment’s clearing and the University’s subsequent actions against pro-Palestinian organizations on campus has been a “chilling and harrowing experience.”
“Some of us were actually here when the raid took place, when students were removed by force, pepper sprayed, belongings, religious artifacts thrown into dumpster trucks and taken away,” the faculty member said.
Another speaker, who identified themselves as a GW faculty member, said student and faculty protests have “gotten smaller” since the start of the war in Gaza because many people feel protests are “unable to stop the momentum” of the war. They said people are watching people in Gaza “burning” and “starving” from their cell phones but will not come out to protest on their behalf, allowing the war to continue with less resistance.
“I think the only thing we can do is come out in numbers, again, and again and again,” the faculty member said.
A demonstrator who identified themselves as a Georgetown University faculty member, said decades of the government and universities “suppressing” Palestinians and their allies has resulted in symbols like the watermelon — commonly used by activists as a way of showing support for Palestinians — being labeled by some Israeli and Jewish activists as an offensive symbol. The demonstrator said former President Joe Biden’s administration allowed pro-Palestinian students on college campuses to be “suppressed in the most brutal ways” by remaining silent as universities took action against student protesters.
“None of us are safe if we don’t stand up for our students,” the demonstrator said. “The students is the only thing that has held our universities accountable historically.”
At around 12:50 p.m., the crowd left H Street and began marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, and MPD officers closed streets as they marched. The protesters chanted “Hands off our schools” and “Hands off our students” as they approached the White House.
“Money for schools and education, not for ICE and deportation,” the demonstrators chanted.
At the White House, the GW faculty member leading the demonstration said the protest had made its way to the “belly of the beast” at Trump’s gates. They said government and University officials, including at GW, continue to “deploy police” against their own students who are peaceful protesters, like the MPD’s clearing of last spring’s encampment.
“We tell you now, we tell you here at the White House, if you keep sending police, we will keep coming into the streets,” the faculty member said.
A series of speakers then took turns reading excerpts from a letter by Khalil addressing the public. In the letter, Khalil called himself a “political prisoner” and wrote that Columbia “targeted” him for his activism. He wrote students have historically been “at the forefront of change” and that students will “steer us toward truth and justice.”
The rally concluded with the crowd reiterating its demands, chanting for the University to disclose all investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel and that “all our students must be free.”
“Donald Trump, we’re at your gate, protect our students, no debate,” the demonstrators chanted.
The rally ended around 1:40 p.m., with Blanco telling attendees to “stand together” and “continue forward” before thanking them for their attendance and telling them to disperse.
Ryan Saenz contributed reporting.
