A group of George Washington University students protesting the Hamas–Israel war caused controversy when a video on social media showed them calling for university administrators to be put on the “gallows” and a “guillotine.”
In a viral social media post recorded on Instagram on May 3, students were heard chanting threatening remarks towards Christopher Bracey, the African American provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at GWU. The students held a mock “People’s Tribunal” where they symbolically put university administrators on trial, accusing them of having a “vested interest in the genocide of Palestinian people.”
The social media post garnered reactions from various individuals, including Elon Musk, who described the situation as “insane.” The Anti-Defamation League of Washington, D.C. expressed concern over the calls to violence made by the protesters.
Following the incident, the Metropolitan Police Department cleared out the university encampment and arrested 33 people. Protesters later gathered for a press conference to criticize the forceful removal from the encampment, and some parents of the protesters demanded the resignations of the university president and provost.
MPD Chief Pamela Smith stated that the student protesters had been given multiple warnings to evacuate the area before the police cleared the encampment. The protesters had been demonstrating on the university grounds for 14 days.
