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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/us-college-bars-trauma-services-palestinians/34436">electronicintifada.net</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">US college bars trauma services for Palestinians</h1>
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<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/nora-barrows-friedman">Nora Barrows-Friedman</a></span> -
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">9 December 2021</span></span> </p>
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<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2021-12/gw_protest.jpg?itok=hr0BmaRQ×tamp=1638993842" alt="Students hold signs during a protest" title="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="450" height="280"></span><p>George Washington University students are demanding that the administration protect Palestinians. (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhiDK4dZVe8">Still from YouTube video by GW Hatchet</a>)</p><p>A civil rights group has filed a legal complaint against <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/george-washington-university">George Washington University</a>
in Washington, DC, after college officials banned campus mental health
services from serving Palestinian students following Israel’s attack on
Gaza.</p>
<p>The university could shut down the entire office dedicated to
supporting students’ emotional well-being over complaints from Israel
advocates.</p>
<p>In a June Instagram <a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/jewish-currents/image0-5.jpeg">post</a> expressing solidarity and support for Palestinian rights, George Washington University’s Office of Advocacy and Support (OAS) <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/george-washington-university-employees-offered-support-to-palestinian-students-now-they-say-theyre-paying-the-price">offered trauma support services</a> to Palestinian students affected by Israel’s attacks on Gaza the month prior.</p>
<p>During its 11-day bombardment of Gaza in May, Israel attacked residential buildings <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/al-wihda-street-massacre/33366">killing entire Palestinian families</a>, sometimes wiping out several generations.</p>
<p>But those services were quickly canceled by the university administration after the campus chapter of <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hillel">Hillel</a>, which is affiliated with Hillel International, a <a href="https://www.hillel.org/jewish/hillel-israel/hillel-israel-guidelines">Zionist</a> institution, claimed that the OAS offer was harmful to Jewish students.</p>
<p>A top administrator contacted the director of OAS and “implied an
ultimatum” to the office, civil rights group Palestine Legal asserts in <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/6193d24c5c4192502fcebab7/1637077580521/Palestine+Legal+Letter+to+GW+Nov+8+Final.pdf">the complaint</a>.</p>
<p>OAS could either take down the Instagram posts offering support to
Palestinian students at the university, or the director would be fired,
according to the complaint. OAS leadership “considered this threat
credible,” Palestine Legal states.</p>
<p>OAS was <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2021/11/16/george-washington-university-selectively-denies-trauma-services-to-palestinians-new-civil-rights-complaint">pushed</a>
by the administration to publish a statement saying that the post “did
not create a safe space for all members of our community” and to revoke
the services for Palestinian students.</p>
<p>A student-run group, Students Against Sexual Assault, had also posted
to Instagram offering peer trauma support for Palestinian students. The
administration ordered the group to remove their post as well, under
the same pretext that it was “harmful and exclusionary.”</p>
<p>George Washington University then launched an “audit” of OAS. Members
of the office are no longer allowed to publish on social media or
communicate with professors on behalf of students experiencing trauma,
Palestine Legal says.</p>
<p>Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the entire office and its support services could be closed to all students.</p>
<p>Radhika Sainath, senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal, told The
Electronic Intifada that the situation at GW reminded her of segregated
swimming pools in the 1960s: When civil rights laws were passed
mandating that public spaces be accessible for everyone, some
municipalities opted to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-forgotten-history-of-segregated-swimming-pools-and-amusement-parks-119586">shut down the pools</a> altogether rather than comply.</p>
<h2>Censored</h2>
<p>OAS advocacy specialist Nada Elbasha told The Electronic Intifada
that her office has historically offered support services to students
affected by state violence, racism and discrimination.</p>
<p>She and her colleagues had been involved in conversations “about
incorporating more advocacy and more support for populations and
experience of trauma that fit into the racial or ethnic discrimination
category, in order to [expand] the office as more of a safe space for
those communities,” she said.</p>
<p>When Israel began attacking Palestinians in Jerusalem and Gaza in
May, Elbasha said that her colleagues initiated discussions about how to
support Palestinian students affected by what they were seeing.</p>
<p>But Elbasha’s office was prevented from doing so by the administration.</p>
<p>“I was not given any opportunity to ask questions or give my thoughts,” Elbasha told The Electronic Intifada.</p>
<p>The administration’s move codified Hillel’s false allegations that
any mention of Palestine or Palestinians is offensive and somehow
injures Jewish people.</p>
<p>“In the way that it was translated to me, in the conversation between
Hillel and my supervisor, which happened before the instructions by the
administration, Hillel asserted that OAS is ignorant of the issue and
we are just following a social media trajectory without understanding
what’s really going on [in Palestine],” Elbasha explained.</p>
<p>“There was no invitation for dialogue. That’s how I perceived it.”</p>
<p>From the administrative end, she added, “the argument was that our
language [in the Instagram post] was too extreme or not representative
of GW, meaning that the phrase ‘Free Palestine,’ and the words
‘oppression’ and ‘imperialism’ and ‘apartheid’ were too vague for this
prestigious academic institution.”</p>
<p>The Electronic Intifada reached out to the university’s Hillel
chapter to ask how the OAS’ statement of support for Palestinians could
be seen as bigotry against Jewish people, but did not receive a
response.</p>
<p>Pro-Israel organizations often <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/the-palestine-exception">claim</a>
that support for Palestinian rights is equal to anti-Jewish bigotry in
order to shield Israel from criticism and accountability – especially on
campuses.</p>
<p>It goes back to a fundamental Zionist framework “that Palestinians
attempting to just assert their humanity and ask for equal treatment is
somehow anti-Jewish, and it’s wrong. Palestinians are pushing back
against that,” Sainath said.</p>
<p>On Elbasha’s behalf, Palestine Legal filed a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/6193d24c5c4192502fcebab7/1637077580521/Palestine+Legal+Letter+to+GW+Nov+8+Final.pdf">complaint</a>
against the university in November, asserting that this denial of
services constitutes national origin discrimination under the District
of Columbia Human Rights Act.</p>
<p>“Our demands are minimal: ensuring that Palestinian students are
treated equally and that GW is complying with the law, that they
apologize for the denial of services,” Sainath said.</p>
<p>The DC’s Office for Human Rights can impose sanctions on the
university if it is found to have violated the law, including financial
penalties.</p>
<p>“We’re not asking for that here. Nada Elbasha is asking for something that shouldn’t be very hard to do,” Sainath added.</p>
<p>“We’re just asking the university to do the right thing.”</p>
<h2>Students fight back</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, thousands of people around the US <a href="https://act.uscpr.org/a/tell-gw-palestinians-deserve-care">have</a> <a href="https://act.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/a/gwu-discrimination">emailed</a> the university to demand that the OAS be allowed to offer trauma services to all students.</p>
<p>And students <a href="https://www.gwhatchet.com/2021/11/22/students-rally-in-kogan-plaza-in-solidarity-with-palestinian-students/">marched on campus</a> to demand that the university protect Palestinians and end discriminatory treatment.
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On 22 November, GW president Thomas LeBlanc issued a <a href="https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/message-president-leblanc-supporting-palestinian-community">public statement</a> recognizing “the concerns and frustrations some in the Palestinian community are feeling.”
<p>He acknowledged the investigation sparked by Palestine Legal’s
complaint, but failed to disclose any plans to reverse discriminatory
actions. He asserted however that the university is committed to
providing students with support services “without regard to their
national origin.”</p>
<p>Law Students for Justice in Palestine at GW <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GW-Law-Students-for-Justice-in-Palestine-114954270204745/">called</a> the president’s response “vague, inadequate and ineffective.”</p>
<p>The statement “bizarrely and merely redirects Palestinian students
seeking support to go to the very same office which was prohibited from
doing so by the university,” the group added.</p>
<h2>History of discrimination</h2>
<p>The university has a history of discrimination against Palestinians.</p>
<p>In 2015, administrators <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/12/09/gw-palestinian-flag/">forced a student to remove</a> a Palestinian flag from a dorm room window while other flags were allowed to be displayed.</p>
<p>After Palestine Legal intervened, the university president <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2015/12/10/victory-gwu-apologizes-to-student-for-palestinian-flag-censorship">apologized</a> to the student.</p>
<p>And in 2018, GW students were <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-promotes-cyberbullying-us-students/24221">cyberbullied and targeted</a> by the Israeli government and Israel lobby groups over a divestment campaign.</p>
<p>Campus security officers refused to remove Israel advocates who
intimidated and harassed students during a student government hearing on
divestment.</p>
<p>Sainath told The Electronic Intifada that these highly visible
instances are “just the tip of the iceberg” in terms of the actual
number of GW students her legal team has talked to about
anti-Palestinian racism there.</p>
<p>While Palestine Legal, students, alumni and human rights activists
continue to press the administration to reverse course and apologize in
this instance, Elbasha said that she is hoping to rebuild trust with her
students.</p>
<p>For her, the administration’s draconian censorship of her work
indicates that its priority “is not necessarily with the students, or
with learning, or with well-being, or actual diversity” as the
university claims.</p>
<p>What’s most troubling, Elbasha said, the university’s actions have
only “validated students’ thoughts that they are not safe or welcome on
the campus. How does that impact their academic success?”</p>
<p><em>Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor of The Electronic Intifada.</em></p><br>
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