George Washington University removed a student from campus for allegedly tearing down posters of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas, the school confirmed Thursday.
Student Noah Shapiro was shocked when he realized what happened.
“My heart skipped a beat,” he said.
He went to the Hillel building to set up for Shabbat Friday evening and noticed the posters were missing.
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“It’s hard to not think of it as a deliberate attack,” Shapiro said. “I mean, this is the one place where Jewish students, really, this is our home on campus.”
According to GW Hillel, the accused student used their key card to enter the building and tore down all of the posters facing the intersection of H and 23rd streets in Northwest.
“As a Jewish student, I feel personally attacked,” Shapiro said. “I don’t really feel safe on campus. I feel like antisemitism is running rampant.”
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The student has been suspended while the student conduct process plays out, the school said.
For many in the campus community, the incident is just the latest example of intolerance at the university.
“I do think freedom of speech is really important, but I think respecting people’s space is also really important,” student Ella Fairchild said.
GW Hillel said there will be increased security at the building for the near future.
A representative for the university said, “GW will continue to prioritize the safety and care of all members of its community. We encourage university community members to use the bias incident reporting website and reporting through student rights and responsibilities, EthicsPoint, human resources, or faculty affairs."
“I just think the university should make sure that this doesn’t, things don’t cross into the boundaries of threats or going beyond people’s comfortability,” student David Biskir said. “I think that is a very, very good example of when things go past a certain limit.”
School administrators said they received multiple reports of concerning incidents involving Jewish and Muslim members of the campus community. In a statement, the university said another person was barred from campus for a year after what it calls harmful verbal misconduct aimed at a Muslim student last month.
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