Leaflets were found around the school’s main campus in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., with text reading “Zionists F*** Off.”
The flyers were followed by protesters gathering outside the Jewish Student Center and chanting, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution.” These incidents came days after Yom Kippur.
Gil Preuss, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, told JNS that rhetoric against Israel and the Jewish community at GW has grown increasingly intense, “violent and more confrontational, and has crossed many lines.”
He described the developments as “shocking on the one hand, yet sadly, somewhat predictable on the other hand.”
Following the recent anti-Semitic Twitter comments by singer Kanye West, Preuss observed a “growing acceptance in the United States right now of hateful speech, where the speaker has no implications on their professional well-being and the support that they may have on their engagements.”
At its core, he thinks American culture, “across the political spectrum,” needs to be comfortable calling out “virulent anti-Semitism” and asking “others to call it out as well.”
“Right now, there’s too much space, too much support, and too much airtime for the people who are really just trying to create more hatred and rip us apart,” he said.
Preuss is waiting to see “the full commitment of the GW administration to addressing and fighting anti-Semitism on the campuses.”
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