OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:36 PM – Tuesday, August 12, 2025
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that the George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C., has ignored antisemitic harassment and discrimination on campus, thereby violating federal civil rights protections.
Jewish, American Israeli, and Israeli students faced a “hostile educational environment” during pro-Palestine protests in April and May 2024, the DOJ added.
On Tuesday, the DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon issued a notice of findings in a letter to Ellen M. Granberg, the president of GWU.
The investigation found that GWU was “deliberately indifferent” to the complaints they received from Jewish and Israeli students and faculty, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The letter also outlined how the school’s lack of response to “known acts of harassment” created a “hostile educational environment.”
“Courts have found that when students are routinely subjected to antisemitic epithets, threats of violence, or physical assault by their peers, such harassment is sufficiently severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive to create a hostile environment,” the letter stated.
In one example of on-campus harassment provided in the letter, plaintiffs “had anti-Semitic slurs repeatedly directed at them, witnessed swastika graffiti, and were subjected to anti-Semitic ‘jokes.’” They were also told they “should have been burned in the holocaust.”
Jewish plaintiffs also claim to have been “slapped [and] physically restrained… having coins thrown at them.”
The letter addressed multiple instances of harassment and discrimination, notably highlighting an anti-Israel “encampment” in GWU’s University Yard that took place during the graduation ceremonies.
According to the DOJ, a student alleged that GWU’s Assistant Dean of Students had instructed him to leave the vicinity of a school protest after he was “surrounded, harassed, threatened, and then ordered to leave the area immediately by antisemitic protesters.” According to the student, the Dean justified this by asserting that his presence was antagonizing and provoking the antisemitic crowd, effectively placing blame on the student for the hostility and implying that his mere existence was inciting the ongoing protest.
The letter also noted that the “physically threatening or humiliating conduct” purportedly suffered by Jewish and Israeli students on campus is not protected by the free speech clause.
“The behavior was demonstrably abhorrent, immoral, and, most importantly, illegal,” the document added.
In conclusion, the DOJ informed the school that they have failed to “act reasonably to investigate and address the harassment and hostile environment,” which is considered sufficient evidence of deliberate indifference.
“Given the severe and shockingly offensive nature of the anti-Semitic slurs allegedly being made to the Plaintiff by other students, it appears to this Court that the supposed lack of action by the Defendants to either educate students about the harms of such religious discrimination or investigate and discipline the harassers was an inadequate response and thus, clearly unreasonable,” said the letter.
Last week, the administration also cut over half a billion dollars in federal grants for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for their lack of action to protect their Jewish staff members and students, similarly violating the Equal Rights Amendment of 1964.
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