A group of George Washington University students protesting the Hamas–Israel war stirred controversy when a social media video showed them calling for putting university administrators on the “gallows” and a “guillotine.”
In a viral May 3 social media post recorded on Instagram, students are heard chanting, “Bracey, Bracey, we see you. You assault students, too. Off to the motherf***ing gallows with you.”
The students were referring to Christopher Bracey, the African American provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at GWU, in their remarks.
“To the guillotine,” a student can also be heard shouting.
The demonstrators held a “People’s Tribunal,” which put university administrators symbolically on trial while chanting threatening remarks. The mock court was targeted at giving punishments to GWU’s board of trustees, provost, and president, Ellen Grandberg, for having a “vested interest in the genocide of Palestinian people.”
“Board of Trustees, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide!” the group chanted.
“When will @GWtweets finally do something? If the students hurt any of these people in any way, the university will be completely at fault,” a social media user said when posting the video on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Insane,” X executive Elon Musk said, reacting to the post.
“Sounds extremely peaceful. I don’t see the problem at all,” a woman quipped on social media.
“These people are too old to be cosplaying Lord of the Flies. It’s so cringe and embarrassing,” another person said.
“We’ve seen antisemitic signs, chants & harassment near the @GWtweets encampment. Now we’ve witnessed what appears to be calls to violence. If chanting ‘Guillotine, Guillotine, Guillotine…’ or ‘Off to the motherf***ing gallows’ doesn’t raise serious alarm bells then what does?” the Anti-Defamation League of Washington, D.C. said.
The Metropolitan Police Department cleared out the university encampment at around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning and arrested 33 people.
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Hours later, protesters from the encampment gathered for a press conference to criticize students being physically forced to leave the encampment. Several parents of the protesters sent a letter to the university’s board of trustees demanding the resignations of the university president and provost.
MPD Chief Pamela Smith said on Wednesday morning that the student protesters had been given six warnings to evacuate from the area before the police cleared the encampment. The protesters had been demonstrating for 14 days on the university grounds.