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The Trump administration on Tuesday shredded George Washington University as “deliberately indifferent” to what the Department of Justice considers a “hostile educational environment for Jewish, American-Israeli, and Israeli students and faculty.”
The DOJ announced that its Civil Rights Division has concluded its investigation into “incidents of antisemitic discrimination and harassment of Jewish and Israeli students” and found the Washington, D.C.-based university violated federal civil rights law.
“Every student has the right to equal educational opportunities without fear of harassment or abuse,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “No one is above the law, and universities that promulgate antisemitic discrimination will face legal consequences.”
In a letter to George Washington University President Ellen Granberg, Dhillon said the DOJ finds that “despite actual notice of the abuses occurring on its campus, GWU was deliberately indifferent to the complaints it received, the misconduct that occurred, and the harms that were suffered by its students and faculty, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” The DOJ is moving to enforcement and is seeking “immediate remediation.”
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A Palestinian flag and a protest sign are positioned on a statue of George Washington at an anti-Israel encampment in the University Yard at George Washington University on April 25, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Justice Department, which provides direct federal financial assistance to GWU, said it was offering the university an opportunity to resolve the matter through a “voluntary resolution agreement.” The state goal is “to ensure immediate remediation of these issues and related reforms to prevent the recurrence of discrimination, harassment, and abuse.”
Unlike Harvard and Columbia – which have both clashed with the Trump administration over anti-Israel demonstrations in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks – George Washington University is a private institution. However, due to its location in the nation’s capital, federal agencies and global embassies, George Washington University is more exposed to federal oversight and political influence.
The DOJ announcement comes a day after President Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of the D.C. police department, citing rampant violent crime in the nation’s capital.
The federal civil rights investigation found GWU students and faculty “were subjected to a hostile educational environment that was objectively offensive, severe, and pervasive,” Dhillon wrote. “The antisemitic, hate-based misconduct by GWU students directed at Jewish GWU students, faculty, and employees was, in a word, shocking. The behavior was demonstrably abhorrent, immoral, and, most importantly, illegal.”
During final exams and graduation ceremonies in April and May 2024, Dhillon said, members of the university community engaged in “antisemitic, disruptive protests that included the establishment of an ‘encampment’ in GWU’s University Yard.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon testifies during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The DOJ said the university received “no less than eight complaints” during that timeframe alleging that demonstrators were discriminating against Jewish and Israeli students. Jewish students, parents and alumni also contacted university leadership to voice “reasonable fears for their safety” as protesters continued their anti-Israel campus encampment. The DOJ also received reports of antisemitic discrimination at George Washington University’s campus.
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“The purpose of the agitators’ efforts was to frighten, intimidate, and deny Jewish, Israeli, and American-Israeli students free and unfettered access to GWU’s educational environment,” Dhillon wrote. “This is the definition of hostility and a ‘hostile environment’.”
The investigation also found “numerous incidents” of Jewish students being harassed, abused, intimidated and assaulted by protesters,” Dhillon wrote. “To be clear, Jewish students were afraid to attend class, to be observed, or, worse, to be ‘caught’ and perhaps physically beaten on GWU’s campus.”
A student waves a Palestinian flag at an anti-Israel encampment at George Washington University’s Yard on Saturday, April 27, 2024. (ALI KHALIGH/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Dhillon cited one Jewish student who described being “surrounded, harassed, threatened, and then ordered to leave the area immediately by antisemitic protesters after exiting the Law School, which is adjacent to University Yard.” Her letter said GWU’s Assistant Dean of Students instructed the Jewish student to leave because his presence was “antagonizing and provoking the crowd.”
The assistant attorney general said other Jewish students provided similar accounts of harassment and intimidation by protesters when they tried to cross the campus through University Yard.
“Protesters surrounded them, yelled antisemitic slurs in their faces, and forced them to flee,” Dhillon wrote. “A Jewish student who quietly held up an Israeli flag on University Yard was confronted and surrounded by protesters with their arms linked together for the purpose of restricting the Jewish student’s movements.”
Throughout the encounter, Dhillon said, the protesters shouted slurs and a university police officer standing nearby “did nothing to prevent or intervene in the incident and instead told the student to leave University Yard for his own safety.”
Dhillon said another Jewish student who stood holding an Israeli flag across the street from the encampment was harassed by protesters who screamed “F— you, Zionist go die,” “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution,” “Hamas are freedom fighters,” and “Zionists go to hell!” She said a university police officer also told that student to leave the area.
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Fox News Digital reached out to George Washington University for comment but did not immediately hear back.
