Pro-Palestine protesters claimed America is committing genocide and defaced a state of George Washington with an Arab headdress.
One Gaza demonstrator at George Washington University in Washington DC told GB News the founder of the United States was a slave owner who set up America in a way she couldn’t “particularly endorse”.
The protesters defaced a statue of Washington with pro-Palestine stickers and slogans, including “genocidal warmongering university” and even covered the American hero’s face with an Arab headdress.
However, not all of the students at the protest agreed with the pro-Gaza demonstrators.
One student told GB News: “I'm totally opposed to what's happening here. Again, as a matter of principle, I'm in full support of free speech and protest.”
“These are core values of our Republic. However, when students start blocking the streets, occupy university grounds and start preventing us from accessing the facilities here on campus, I mean, the centre of campus, we can't even walk there, that is illegal.”
“That is a violation of the campus policy, as the administration has been exceedingly clear about. And so this right here, if you want a free Palestine, this right here is not the way to go about it.”
A pro-Palestine protester claimed that America was committing “genocide” in the Middle East and had killed her family.
She told GB News: “There's a genocide going on at the hands of the United States. That's what we need to be focused on. We need to be focused on that.
“Every single university in Gaza has been shut down. There have been over 100,000 casualties in the hands of the United States and at the hands of Israel, and that's what we need to be focusing on right now.”
One student told GB News America is “absolutely not” genocidal.
He said: “I'm an immigrant to this country. America is not perfect. There are some things we've done that certainly have tainted our character.”
“But to say that we are a genocidal country, or that we’re supporting genocide in the Middle East because we're supporting our ally Israel, I think it's nonsensical.”
“It doesn't stack up with the facts. I think some of these claims are very representative of the broader movement. A lot of the things they're saying are just not true.”
“The idea that Israel is [committing] genocide in Gaza and civilians, that's just not true at all.”
Another student said the protests were “counterproductive”.
He continued: “I think if these people want to make a difference, they would study their policy, focus on their academics, and instead focus on changing policy internally. This is all counterproductive.”
Anti-Israel protests have spread across campuses in the United States in recent weeks.
300 demonstrators were arrested at Columbia university in New York City earlier this week after students barricaded themselves inside university property.
Violence erupted at the University of California on Tuesday following clashes between pro and anti-Israel protests.
Another George Washington student told GB News: “I am a Christian, and when I listen to some of the [slogans] they’re chanting, intifada, revolution, there's only one solution, from the river to the sea, these are chants that are calling for Israel to be wiped off the map.”
“And that doesn't sit right with my conscience, frankly, as a human being and as a Christian doesn't sit right with my conscience.”
