Ellen M. Granberg, president of The George Washington University in D.C., is starting to discover her chickens are coming home to roost after more than one week of university inaction allowed a pro-Hamas encampment to take over a swath of campus.
Townhall reported from the site of the encampment on its first day as dozens then hundreds of agitators chanted "the intifada is here" and issued other calls for the murder of Jews and elimination of Israel.
That first day, the university warned those setting up tents that they were in violation of school policy and must be moved to another location. GW also noted that overnight camping is not allowed and demonstrators would need to remove themselves and their tents by 7:00 p.m.
Townhall was there as 7:00 p.m. turned into 10:00 p.m. The pro-terrorist goons were still there, their horde growing in number. Not only did they not move from the area they weren't allowed to be in, they never dispersed. For hours, GW administrators stood at the margins of the antisemitic demonstration. Appearing unconcerned with the vile chants emanating from the center of their supposedly elite campus, the "adults in the room" milled about chatting and laughing with each other.
Unsurprisingly, once the organizers of the Hamas Youth Campout realized the university predictably (no less shamefully) was not going to do anything to enforce the rules, the crowd grew. The pro-terrorist agitators raised the Palestinian flag over the lawn on which they camped. Outsiders joined the student agitators. The encampment even established its own dystopian "People's Tribunal" to declare the guilt of administrators — including President Granberg — and call for their summary execution by "guillotine."
Now suddenly, and after day after day of inaction, GW's president is lamenting the state of things and begging for help because things on campus have become "increasingly unsafe" as if it wasn't clear from the start that the situation would deteriorate.
“It is increasingly unsafe…to have so many unidentified and unvetted people from outside the GW community living on university property.”
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) May 6, 2024
Ellen M. Granberg
GWU President pic.twitter.com/mq1YvhBGdf
In a letter posted to the school's website, President Granberg did the usual equivocating about the "dire humanitarian crisis occurring in Gaza" and how she's "personally grief-stricken by the suffering and loss of innocent lives occurring on both sides of this conflict."
"However, what is currently happening at GW is not a peaceful protest protected by the First Amendment or our university’s policies," Granberg's letter continued. "The demonstration, like many around the country, has grown into what can only be classified as an illegal and potentially dangerous occupation of GW property." That's tough talk for someone who did not care enough to do anything until about five minutes ago.
Outlining the chaos that has occurred on her campus, Granberg lamented the current situation that has seen "protesters overrun barriers established to protect the community, vandalize a university statue and flag, surround and intimidate GW students with antisemitic images and hateful rhetoric, chase people out of a public yard based on their perceived beliefs, and ignore, degrade, and push GW Police Officers and university maintenance staff."
All that, according to Granbeg, means "the protest ceases to be peaceful or productive." Odd that it was unproblematic to Granberg — and in fact "productive" — for her to tolerate students flagrantly violating school policies and chanting their desire for Jews to be murdered for days before all the naturally outflowing violence grew to be too much.
Granberg herself admits the weakness she and the school displayed that allowed the situation to escalate:
It is also essential to highlight that at no point was this encampment lawful. From the moment GW students declared their intent to establish an encampment on University Yard, they were in direct violation of multiple university policies and were trespassing on a space explicitly reserved for the GW Law final examinations. The university, which is committed to protecting our students' rights to free expression, informed them of this and quickly offered a secure alternative protest site where GW would support them in holding peaceful daytime demonstrations. This offer was repeatedly refused.
"This offer was repeatedly refused," by students, just like the Hamas terrorists they glorify have repeatedly refused ceasefire offers.
For now, though, GW is still allowing the pro-terrorist camp to continue — claiming it is "not equipped to single-handedly manage an unprecedented situation such as this." Well, this was started by GW's students. GW failed to enforce the policies that made the encampment illegal from the start. GW failed to better train its students in the ideas of tolerance and decency. And now it reaps a plentiful harvest.
Granberg says that GW "must rely on the support and experience of the DC Metropolitan Police Department," but the camp still stands. Saying the school's "commitment remains to regain and maintain the safety" of the yard pro-terrorist students have seized," she pleads for "the full support of our partners, including the District of Columbia." That is, after allowing an illegal camp to be set up and failing to enforce school policies for weeks, GW now needs bailing-out from a crisis of its own creation.
But the District, helmed by Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser and an even more radical city council, did not show interest in shutting down illegal, violent protests in the summer of 2020. So far, D.C. has not shown any more interest in removing the violent pro-terrorist agitators from GW.
Shame on these students and outside agitators who've joined them — and shame on The George Washington University for putting its willfully feckless incompetence on display.