D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser reiterated Monday that the Metropolitan Police Department will not clear out a protest of Israel at George Washington University unless it becomes violent, rebuffing a plea from the school’s president and brushing off criticism from Capitol Hill.
Ms. Bowser said city police will continue to take a hands-off approach to the encampment occupying the grassy University Yard. The area has become a gathering place for pro-Palestinian activists for nearly two weeks.
University President Ellen Granberg released an open letter Sunday saying the occupation has been illegal from the start.
Congressional Republicans criticized Ms. Bowser for failing to keep the peace.
Police nationwide have been called to break up university encampments, but Metropolitan Police officers remained stationed along the GWU camp’s perimeter.
“The city’s position is unchanged,” Ms. Bowser said at a media event in Northeast. “We live in a city where our job is — my constitutional responsibility is — to make sure that people can safely protest, and if they don’t, then to support a law enforcement interaction.”
Ms. Bowser refused to elaborate. In her weekly newsletter Friday, the mayor said she is grateful that the District hasn’t succumbed to any “divisive rhetoric” surrounding the encampment. She was vague about her thoughts of the protest on the GWU campus downtown, a short walk from the State Department.
The Bowser newsletter underscored the importance of supporting peaceful protests and not tolerating violence. She didn’t mention GWU by name until the end of the letter when she said she was in touch with the school’s leadership on keeping the campus safe.
Ms. Granberg’s letter Sunday dispelled any notion that the protest was peaceful.
“When 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, the protest ceases to be peaceful or productive,” Ms. Granberg wrote. “All of these things have happened at GW in the last five days.”
During a mock trial last week, campers read off administrators’ names and sentenced them to the “guillotine” or the “gallows.” They included Provost Christopher Alan Bracey, the school’s board of trustees and Ms. Granberg.
Ms. Granberg said the encampment violates laws against trespassing. She expressed concern that the camp was being “co-opted by individuals who are largely unaffiliated with our community and do not have our community’s best interest in mind.”
She said the university has started disciplining student participants but added that little could be done to remove the encampment without help from city police.
“The GW police force is, and should only be, prepared to protect our community during normal university operations and to respond to routine and urgent incidents,” Ms. Granberg wrote. “When unlawful activities go beyond these limits, we must rely on the support and experience of the DC Metropolitan Police Department.”
Earlier reports indicated that the mayor and MPD leadership hoped to avoid the chaotic scenes at other universities.
Los Angeles police dispatched officers in riot gear to bring down an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, a site of open fights between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators.
In New York City, police arrested more than 280 people who barricaded themselves inside a building on Columbia University’s campus. One of the reported leaders of Columbia’s camp had said people should “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
In Oregon, police pushed out dozens of protesters who took over a library at Portland State University. Authorities said they found makeshift weapons inside the building.
Close to 2,000 people have been arrested nationwide for their roles in the encampments, according to NBC News.
The scene at GWU hasn’t been as volatile as at other campuses, but Ms. Bowser’s inaction has drawn congressional scorn.
A Republican delegation including Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Reps. Byron Donalds and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida visited the camp last week.
Videos showed Ms. Boebert, a conservative firebrand on cultural issues, demanding that a Palestinian flag be taken off a statue of George Washington.
“I had people proudly saying that they are faculty and not wanting to remove a Palestinian sign from the George Washington statue,” Ms. Boebert said. “If they don’t want to do something to address this, well then kiss your federal funding goodbye.”
Mr. Comer said Jewish students felt unsafe on campus and university leaders didn’t think they could handle a protest at that scale.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee plans to hold an emergency hearing Wednesday to question city leaders, including MPD Police Chief Pamela Smith, on their handling of the crisis.
Ms. Bowser hasn’t said whether she will attend the hearing.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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