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On November 7, Virginia police arrived outside the residence of two Palestinian American students at George Mason University.
By ELLIE ESQUENAZI DECEMBER 12, 2024 11:37 Updated: DECEMBER 12, 2024 11:40
Fairfax, Virginia - June 15, 2015: The entrance sign to George Mason University's West Campus near historic downtown Fairfax.
(photo credit: John M. Chase/Shutterstock)
Two members of George Mason University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine were placed on a four-year campus ban after police found guns, magazines, and antisemitic during a raid on their home last month, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
On November 7, Virginia police arrived outside the residence of two Palestinian American students at George Mason University. They raided their home in search of weapons and evidence of hate crimes. Police found signs reading “Death to Jews” and “Death to America,” among others. They also discovered magazines, guns, and other “antique firearms” registered to the sisters’ father and brother, as reported by The Intercept.
Suspected acts of vandalism on campus
Noor and Jena Chanaa are sisters and both students at George Mason. One is an undergraduate student and the co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GMU. The other is a master's student and former president of Mason’s SJP chapter.
The pair were suspected of involvement in a vandalism act at GMU in August, where students defaced the student center with spray-painted messages threatening a “student intifada.” According to Free Beacon, the activists caused thousands of dollars in damage, and these SJP leaders are suspected as the vandal group heads.
GMU’s response
The University took action, suspending the GMU SJP chapter and calling for a four-year ban on the Chanaa sisters. The policies instated sparked major backlash from professors and students alike.
SJP faculty adviser at George Mason, Ben Manski, expressed concern for the students.
“There are still no allegations and no charges that I’m aware of,” he stated. “Without those, we can’t have due process, we don’t know what is behind these actions, and we can’t know whether the public interest is being served or harmed.”
Associate English professor Alexander Monea described asking GMU President Gregory Washington about the raid at a November faculty meeting. “He declined to share any information,” said Monea. When Tim Gibson further inquired, Washington reiterated that, without sharing specifics, the university “would not have acted without valid reasons,” as reported in the faculty meeting minutes
Faculty-signed letter against George Mason’s decisions
A letter was written and signed by over 90 faculty organizations, and a Virginia state lawmaker is targeting the criminal trespass orders against the Chanaa sisters.
The report, published online through Jadaliyya, a paper affiliated with the Arab Studies Institute, claimed that “the punitive actions imposed on these students stem from allegations of (the students were told) graffiti causing property damage in two campus locations, yet to date, no evidence has been presented to support these claims.”
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“We insist that the answer to the question of whether universities such as ours participate in a coordinated campaign of violent repression of human rights activism must be ‘no.’ Therefore: administrators must immediately revoke the trespass orders … the Office of Student Involvement must immediately reinstate the Mason chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine as a Registered Student Organization,” the report added.
Overall controversy
The family’s attorney, Abdel-Rahman Hamed, said the actions taken against the girls “are not just legally dubious, but morally reprehensible … this case reeks of racial and religious profiling.”
This case became public last week when The Intercept published an article covering the raid, and the letter was released. Advocates are calling for the university to reinstate SJP, return the girls’ phones and laptops, and launch an investigation into how the choice to raid the Chanaa residence was made.
“This is not just about one student or one protest. It’s about the right of all Americans to speak out against injustice without fear of retaliation,” Hamed reportedly said.
Stop Antisemitism reported the incident on Wednesday morning, additionally referencing a Free Beacon that dives deeper into the sisters’ pro-Hamas posts and GMU’s SJP members’ threats starting in October of 2023.
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