Campus ban for two pro-Palestinian activists sparks outcry at George Mason

A coalition of organizations representing faculty, staff, students and other advocacy groups at George Mason University and beyond is alleging that university police acted inappropriately in banning two pro-Palestinian student activists from campus and searching their family’s home for reasons authorities have yet to describe publicly.

A letter signed by more than 90 advocacy and faculty organizations and a Virginia state lawmaker takes aim at a criminal trespass order that bars two sisters – one the co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine, the other a past president – from campus for four years. It alleges the students were apparently targeted “for their advocacy for Palestinian human rights” and were told that the search was related to alleged property damage on campus. The letter urged administrators to revoke the trespass order and investigate the events that led to its execution.

The trespass order, issued Nov. 8 by George Mason’s police force, effectively bars the students from attending class, a move some critics compared to an expulsion without due process. One day earlier, university and Fairfax County police searched the family’s Fairfax home – a move the letter also criticized.

Court documents, which do not publicly indicate a reason for the search, allege that authorities found guns and magazines inside the home – materials authorities say belonged to the father and brother of the George Mason students.

Police also alleged that Hamas and Hezbollah flags were found, according to an emergency petition filed to temporarily prohibit the men from possessing or buying firearms.

Prosecutors later said during a hearing that authorities found four weapons unsecured in the home, along with more than 20 magazines with 30 bullets each, according to Laura Birnbaum, spokesperson for the Fairfax County commonwealth’s attorney. Also found were arm patches with Arabic text that were translated in court to read, “Kill them where they stand,” and other patches that called for death to Jews and America, Birnbaum said.

Prosecutors argued that the high volume of weapons and ammunition, along with the specific threats, posed a reasonable danger to others, she added. A judge later denied prosecutors’ petition to bar the brother and father from possessing or buying guns and to extend the emergency risk order, court records show.

No one has been charged with any crimes. It was also not clear what link, if any, existed between the sisters’ criminal trespass notice and the alleged guns and insignia of their relatives.

Abdel-Rahman Hamed, the family’s attorney, said the actions taken against the students “are not just legally dubious, but morally reprehensible.” He also called the allegations against the brother and father “baseless and inflammatory.” He said that the Arabic patches were mistranslated and had been cherry-picked out of a collection of hundreds and that no credible evidence of danger was ever presented.

“This case reeks of racial and religious profiling,” Hamed said in a statement. “The items found were part of a historical collection, not evidence of any threat. … This is yet another example of the police state targeting American Muslims without cause.”

None of the agencies listed on the records as involved in the search would detail the reason for it or offer more information on the trespass order. Fairfax County police referred questions to the FBI and university police, the two agencies it said were leading the investigation. The FBI’s Washington Field Office said it would not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation and referred questions to the university. GMU said it would not comment on the ongoing investigation and would not say why the search warrant or criminal trespass notice were issued.

“George Mason’s Code of Student Conduct explains that the Code applies to all student organizations and when a student organization will be held responsible for the conduct of its members,” Paul Allvin, a George Mason vice president, said in a statement.

In addition to the trespass order against the students, the George Mason chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has been temporarily suspended. In his statement, Allvin did not name the group specifically but said student organizations can be temporarily punished to uphold the safety of the university community.

George Mason was one of many campuses that experienced a wave of protests after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the resulting war. Three people were detained but not arrested in November 2023 after an altercation at a protest. In the spring demonstrations – which brought some schools across the country to a halt and led to the arrest of thousands of students – some pro-Palestinian students from George Mason helped organize a regional encampment at George Washington University to call for that school to cut ties with Israel. This fall, messages voicing support for Hamas have intensified on some campuses.

In the past year, college administrators have tried to balance freedoms of speech and expression with efforts to ensure safety, and a number of campuses have implemented stricter measures on protests. Some SJP chapters have felt silenced by the resulting enforcement, their freedom of speech impaired, representatives say.

George Mason, a 40,000-student school, unveiled rules in August to limit, among other things, gathering and putting up posters.

The new policies were tested soon after students returned to campus this fall. At the end of August, activists spray-painted words on Wilkins Plaza outside the university’s Johnson Center. GMU police posted fliers across campus offering a $2,000 reward for information on the spray-painters, calling it “criminal vandalism.”

Months later, in the early hours of Nov. 7, university and Fairfax County officers raided the sisters’ family home, seizing their phones and computers, according to the letter from advocates. The letter was written and reviewed by GMU’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine chapter.

The next day, the sister who is the current co-president of the school’s SJP chapter was sent an email saying the club had been temporarily suspended. Faculty adviser Ben Manski said he was not initially notified of the club’s suspension. The sister couldn’t read the notification because she didn’t have access to her phone or computer, according to the advocates’ letter.

Alexander Monea, an associate English professor, said he asked GMU President Gregory Washington about the raid during a Nov. 20 faculty senate meeting.

“He declined to share any information,” Monea said. Minutes from the meeting show Washington said that the university’s actions were justified.

The case became public in the past week when the Intercept published an article on the raid and the letter was released. In addition to revoking the criminal trespass notices, advocates are calling on the university to reinstate the SJP chapter, return property, and launch an independent investigation into how the decisions to raid the sisters’ home and issue the trespass notices were made. The national Council on American-Islamic Relations called the police raid one of many attempts to silence pro-Palestinian protesters.

This is not just about one student or one protest,” Hamed, the family’s attorney, said in a statement. “It’s about the right of all Americans to speak out against injustice without fear of retaliation.”