Some Jewish students at Georgetown Law School say they’re facing threatening anti-Israeli rhetoric from classmates and from outside groups that are being promoted on the Washington, D.C. campus.
The hostile rhetoric includes what appears to be a globally orchestrated antisemitic campaign that the students fear will incite physical violence on campus as war escalates between Israelis and Palestinians.
“Knowing you’re sitting in class next to someone who advocates the destruction of Israel is frightening,” Julia Wax, a first-year Georgetown Law student from San Diego, California, told Fox News Digital.
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She and other law school students recently formed the Georgetown Law Zionists as a show of resolve in response to the threats.
“Because it’s law school, people here are nuanced with their hate,” Wax said.
Julia Wax of San Diego, California, a first-year student at Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C., formed a group along with other students called Georgetown Law Zionists in response, she said, to threats of violence against Jewish students from classmates and groups that are active on campus. (Courtesy Julia Wax)
The group is concerned that administrators have failed to publicly condemn violent, antisemitic and anti-Zionist language that is being shared by other students or shouted at events and protests promoted on campus.
Last weekend at Franklin Park, about a mile from campus, protesters chanted, “We don’t want no Jewish state. We want ’48.”
The demonstration was promoted by law school students and attended by classmates, too, the Georgetown Law Zionists claim.
“Because it’s law school, people here are nuanced with their hate.” — Julia Wax, Georgetown Law student
“When we hear that, we hear that they want the extermination of Jews,” said Wax. “They don’t want peace in Israel at all. They want to eliminate or displace 6 million Jewish people.”
The expression “we want ‘48” refers to the Middle East’s status before the nation of Israel was created by the United Nations in 1948, in the aftermath of the Holocaust.
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Video shows protesters at the same event shouting, “Brick by brick, wall by wall, Zionism will fall” and “Globalize the Intifada.”
An Instagram post shared by @kalidyacoub, who identifies himself as “Georgetown Law ‘24,” says, “If you support Palestine, understand that necessitates supporting our right to defend ourselves and liberate our homeland by any means necessary.”
Georgetown Law Students for Justice in Palestine promoted a protest on October 13 at Franklin Park in Washington, D.C., about a mile from campus, where protesters shouted, “We don’t want no Jewish state,” raising fears of violence among the law school’s Jewish students. (Screen capture by Georgetown Law Zionists)
Georgetown Law Zionists say the phrase “by any means necessary,” shared by a classmate, is a direct threat of violence.
The post continued, “You cannot claim to stand with Palestine if you’d prefer us to be slaughtered without fighting back.”
The statement was first posted to Instagram by New York City attorney Nerdeen Kiswani (@nerdeenk), who made headlines when she issued an anti-Israeli screed in a commencement address at CUNY Law School in 2022.
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“We had peace before Israel was created,” Kiswani said in another speech in 2021. “So abolishing Israel is the key to peace.”
Michael Korvyakov, a freshman at Georgetown University, told “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones on Tuesday, “The biggest problem has really been the fact that student organizations have cropped up on campus that are largely spewing this antisemitic rhetoric.”
A pro-Palestinian protester is dressed in militant battle gear in Times Square in New York City on Oct. 6, 2023. Georgetown Law School student Julia Wax, who observed the Times Square protest, said violent rhetoric on campus has raised fears of violence for her and other Jewish students. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“In addition to that, multiple organizations released statements basically calling for the destruction of the state of Israel and also calling for anti-Israeli sentiment.”
The anti-Israeli protests, volatile language and social media blitz appear to be a well-coordinated international effort with tentacles at major universities around the United States.
“If you support Palestine, understand that necessitates supporting our right to defend ourselves and liberate our homeland by any means necessary.” — Georgetown Law student on Instagram
The members of Georgetown Law Zionists believe that the language is often loaded with racist or historically, geopolitically and ethnically controversial references meant to incite rage against Jews and Israelis.
Israel is guilty of “aggression designed to crush the Palestinian people,” read a joint statement last week shared by the Law Students for Justice in Palestine and the Georgetown National Lawyers Guild.
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“The same settler-colonial project is the source of violence today; ignoring it only factually misrepresents the situation but also lays the seeds for more violence in the future.”
The National Students for Justice in Palestine issued what it called a “Day of Resistance Toolkit” in early October.
Georgetown Law School, with its campus clock tower visible in the lower center, is seen in Washington, D.C. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization,” read part of the statement, which was widely circulated among students at Georgetown Law and at other colleges and universities across the country.
“National liberation is near — glory to our resistance, to our martyrs, and to our steadfast people.”
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Georgetown Law first-year student Arielle Vertsman of Fort Lee, New Jersey, told Fox News Digital, “Openly vocalizing support for martyrs is equivalent to condoning terrorism.”
She added, “To support martyrs is to support the deaths of Jews, not in the name of resistance, but in the name of annihilating our people.”
The “toolkit” refers several times to the United States and Canada as “occupied Turtle Island,” a radical leftist term meant to declare that the two nations are illegitimate because North America was taken from indigenous peoples.
Protesters hold banners with hostages’ pictures, as well Israel and US flags, during a demonstration in support of Israel on Sant Jaume square in Barcelona on Oct. 15, 2023. (LLUIS GENE/AFP via Getty Images)
“Apartheid, ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate bombing, arbitrary detention, destruction of infrastructure, 75 years of settler colonialism are provocations,” The National Students for Justice in Palestine claim in the document.
The group also quotes Malcolm X: “You don’t get freedom peacefully … Anyone who is depriving you of freedom isn’t deserving of a peaceful approach.”
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Georgetown Law School dean Mitch Bailin recently met with Jewish students to hear their concerns.
But Georgetown Law Zionists members told Fox News Digital that they emerged from the meeting dissatisfied with the school’s response or lack of condemnation of threats to them circulating on campus.
Georgetown University earlier issued this statement, as Fox News Digital previously reported: “Our long-standing commitment to interreligious understanding enables us to draw upon our faith traditions — all shaped by the pursuit of peace. We each have to discern how we can best contribute to peace and reconciliation. In our sacred spaces—in our Makom, in our Masjid, in our chapels and religious spaces — we can bring the power of prayer to our engagement and our discernment,” the statement from President John DeGioia read in part.
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“As a university, we have a responsibility, in this moment, to contribute to understanding, and to build pathways to peace and reconciliation,” he also said.
“We have a responsibility to one another — to provide consolation and support to those who are suffering. May we be equal to the demands of these responsibilities.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Georgetown Law School for further comment.
Taylor Penney of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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