Controlling the narrative

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: campus protests.

On Monday, Columbia University announced that it would cancel commencement because of them.

Across the country, tents have taken over campus green spaces while anti-Israel protesters–not all of them students–chant Palestinian slogans.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: So who are these people and who is providing the resources for them to spend weeks occupying the quad?

World’s Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta visited George Washington University to find out.

AUDIO: Hey, bring the flag back. Bring it back, bring it back. Gaza you are not alone. This campus is a freedom zone. Move, cops, get out the way. We know you’re Israeli trained

CAROLINA LUMETTA: It’s Thursday afternoon and student protesters at GW are fighting with campus police for control of a flagpole in the University Yard. For more than a week, protesters have occupied the green space between the law school and other campus buildings…just three blocks from the White House. After a few minutes of struggling, the officers give up and retreat while the students replace the university flag with a Palestinian one.

PROTESTERS: Who got the campus? We got the campus. Who got the flag up? We got the flag up.

The Metropolitan Police Department has denied the school’s requests to clear the camp. The police say they will only monitor the protest as long as it remains peaceful, though they did not intervene during the flagpole struggle. Signs along the border of University Yard declare it the “People’s University of Gaza” and “The Liberation Zone.”

REEM LABABDI: So these are some of the tents as you can see I said some of them have names of places in Palestine This is al-Quds which is Arabic for Jerusalem.

That’s Reem Lababdi, a sophomore and student organizer. She said she majors in Middle East studies and Economics at George Washington, but I could not independently verify this. She showed me around the 130 tents, past areas with medical supplies and food. Some tents are decorated with succulents, night lights, and fluffy blankets. There are charging stations for phones and electronics and a tent for art supplies.

Nearby, Lababdi points out a red cart piled high with books and handouts about Palestine, protest movements, and the situation in Gaza.

LABABDI: I am far too busy to read right now. But I also ... There's for example, 1804 Books is a publisher that Palestinian Youth Movement works with and there this is not something that just we have like encampments all over the country have little libraries 1804 Books Publishers have published a little encampment like bundle that they're sending out to encampments.

Many of these pamphlets were published by American Muslims for Palestine and the Palestinian Youth Movement. According to the Anti-Defamation League, those organizations, along with several others funding the encampments, have a history of antisemitic rhetoric. They call Hamas terrorists “freedom fighters,” and tell students that violence is justified against Israelis and their supporters.

Those organizations also supplied tents and instructions on how to set up an encampment. The Party for Socialism and Liberation supplied drums.

JACK: It was really a remarkable effort. And everyone came together to get it done.

Jack is an organizer and a senior, but he was unwilling to tell me his last name or which college he attends. He was recruited to help set up the camp through his membership in his university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP. A coalition of SJP chapters planned this encampment in four days.

JACK: So I was reached out to by one of the members of the Executive Board. And they were like, Hey, do you want a role in making sure this event goes smoothly? And I volunteered.

Across the country, similar encampments have organized student teams to provide security, cleanup, media contacts, and de-escalation. They follow the same protest instructions that pro-Palestinian organizations distributed after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Students at GW pulled up approved lists of chants on their phones during rallies.

Most of the organizers and students were unwilling to tell me which school they attend out of concern for their safety and the risk of suspension.

LUMETTA: Okay? And are you a student here?

RAF: I am a student.

LUMETTA: What year?

RAF: I’m… not going to disclose that information.

Some protesters gave me their full names, but I could not confirm their identities with local colleges or sources like social media. And most protestors covered their faces with masks or keffiyehs if they saw reporters coming.

PROTESTERS: There is only one solution, intifada revolution. There is only one solution, a student-led revolution, a student-led revolution.

These protesters are chanting, “there is only one solution, intifada revolution.” “Intifada” means “uprising” in Arabic. During an intifada in the early 2000s, Palestinians committed suicide bombings and launched rocket attacks against Israel.

DAVID NAFTULIN: Because from my experience, Intifada has led to the deaths of thousands of Jewish people…

David Naftulin is a Jewish third year law student, with classes in the buildings surrounding the encampment. His exams have been relocated to other buildings because the noise permeates the classrooms.

NAFTULIN: I'm seeing how populations can just kind of turn on you. And how propaganda and misinformation can just incite people to hate you. You know, Jews in this country are vulnerable, we are 2% of the country. And if this is the future, then I think that's pretty scary.

Other Jewish students I talked to said they’ve been taking alternate routes to classes in the buildings surrounding the encampment. Meanwhile, many of the students at the encampment are still cracking open their books and working on final projects. As finals kick off this month, the camp has set aside quiet study times each day for the protesters.

LABABDI: …help me study for my Arabic?

After classes, they listen to speeches from professors and activists. Avraham “Miko” Peled spoke to students on Thursday evening. He praised the students for their demonstration…

AVRAHAM PELED: You guys are going to be remembered. This is going to be remembered as one of the most remarkable moments in the history of this campus.

Peled went on to describe Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel on October 7 as a group of poor fighters paralyzing an oppressor. He told the students not to trust media reports about Hamas’ documented war crimes.

GW President Ellen Granberg said in a press release on Sunday that the encampment has been illegal and violent, but the school does not have the resources to address it. And protestors have no plans to disband.

AUDIO: We’re not leaving.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta at George Washington University.

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