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Jordan Tovin

House Republicans have summoned D.C.’s mayor and police chief to testify before a congressional committee about their decision <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/26/dc-police-george-washington-university-protests/" target=_blank>not to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment</a> at George Washington University — the latest in a wide-reaching GOP effort to use the nationwide demonstrations to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/29/gaza-college-campus-protests-republicans-attack-biden-chaos/" target=_blank>paint the country as embroiled in chaos</a> under <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">President Biden</a>.

Federal lawmakers, speaking from GWU’s encampment on Wednesday, said they will use the hearing to compel more aggressive police action at the demonstration unfolding five blocks from the White House.

The response from the District, which involved rejecting pleas from GWU to sweep out the encampment, has stood in sharp contrast to the scenes on other campuses across the country. Police departments in recent days have responded to requests from school officials to clear protests, at times dressing in riot gear and deploying chemical irritants to disperse demonstrators. The law enforcement crackdown has led to arrests of more than 1,600 protesters nationwide, according to a tally by The Washington Post.

Waves of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2024/university-antiwar-campus-protests-arrests-data/">antiwar protests</a> are spreading across colleges campuses, with growing police arrests as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/04/24/commencement-graduation-protests/" target=_blank>graduation season</a> approaches. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/04/25/university-protests-arrests-locations/" target=_blank>See the universities where protests are intensifying</a>.

Are you a college student? <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/04/25/submissions-college-protests/" target=_blank>Tell us about protests on your campus</a>.

At the GWU encampment, which by Wednesday had grown from 30 tents to about 150 and drew students from across the region, D.C. police had yet to make a single arrest.

“We have legislative jurisdiction over the city of D.C.,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who visited the tent encampment at GWU on Wednesday afternoon with other committee members. “We want to ensure that the Washington police is working with campus police to ensure the safety of Jewish students.”

Some demonstrators began to chant “Hands off D.C.” Most of the student protesters, meanwhile, made a point to stay away. They were sitting in the encampment, which they now called “The Liberation Zone,” amid stations for dishwashing and free food.

Anna Liss-Roy

“We are creating a microcosm of the world we want to see, one of inclusion, collectivism and communal care,” said Rafi El-Habashi, a 21-year-old junior journalism student at GWU. “And that’s exactly what we wanted to show the people, the members of Congress who came here today.”

The congressional scrutiny into the District’s tactics has entwined two points of growing tension: a year-long onslaught of federal intervention in District affairs, and a pressing question about how to best handle the wave of pro-Palestinian protests spreading on many college campuses.

As demonstrations across the country produced violent scenes — with students pepper-sprayed, officers injured and building windows smashed — the protesters on GWU’s campus have remained relatively calm. D.C. police, in rejecting requests last week from university officials to clear the demonstrators out of the on-campus encampment, said <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/26/dc-police-george-washington-university-protests/" target=_blank>they worried</a> about the optics of moving against a small number of peaceful protesters.

To D.C. officials, the relative quiet shows, at least in part, that their strategy is working. To others, including House Republicans, the sustained demonstration is “radical, antisemitic and unlawful” — and therefore requires an aggressive police response to end.

“If the District of Columbia and [D.C. police] refuse to exercise their authority to assist GWU in securing the safety of its students and faculty, Congress will be obliged to exercise its legislative powers to do so,” Comer and Education Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) wrote in a Tuesday letter to Bowser and Smith.

GWU officials, <a href="https://mediarelations.gwu.edu/demonstration-update-house-oversight-committee-gw" target=_blank>according to a university statement</a>, met Wednesday with the Republican lawmakers and “reaffirmed their commitment to the safety of all students.” The school declined to answer questions on whether it had continued to request that D.C. police clear the encampment, which began April 25.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/29/gaza-college-campus-protests-republicans-attack-biden-chaos/" target=_blank>Republicans</a> across the country have become increasingly vocal about pro-Palestinian protests, saying they endanger Jewish students and are a symptom of lawlessness under Biden. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) have <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1782421237517496770" target=_blank>demanded</a> that Biden mobilize the National Guard to campuses to protect Jewish students. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently called on Columbia University’s president to resign <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/24/mike-johnson-house-speaker-columbia-student-gaza-protests/" target=_blank>during a visit to that campus</a>. Meanwhile, former president <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> has accused Democrats of being unable to maintain order.

Bowser, at a news conference Wednesday, highlighted demonstrations in other parts of the country and suggested the lawmakers’ attention on D.C. was misplaced.

“The members have universities in their own districts, especially the member from North Carolina, and I was watching a lot of activity in North Carolina,” Bowser said at a news conference, referencing a protest at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It would seem that her energy would be best placed there.”

Congress alone does not have the power to take over the District’s police force nor deploy the D.C. National Guard. Both actions, which are allowed in certain situations because of the city’s unique status as a federal district, require presidential action.

But there are tools at federal lawmakers’ disposal — holding hearings, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/08/dc-crime-bill-senate-vote/" target=_blank>striking down local legislation</a>, controlling the city’s budget — that can hamstring D.C. officials. Bowser and her staff, D.C. Council members and other local officials have appeared multiple times before the House Oversight Committee in the last year at hearings that have often focused on the District’s response to violent crime.

Unfolding in the same building were contentious committee hearings about antisemitism on college campuses. Within weeks of appearing at one hearing in December, the presidents at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, who faced pressure on different fronts, resigned. Last month, the House Education and the Workforce Committee<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/04/17/columbia-congress-hearing-antisemitism-campus-protests-israel-gaza/" target="_blank"> called on Columbia University’s president to testify</a>. That day, a tent encampment appeared on her campus in New York that would kick-start a nationwide movement.

As the GWU demonstration continues, more protesters have moved onto the campus-adjacent H Street NW, a public street fully in the jurisdiction of D.C. police.

“The university hasn’t changed any request to [D.C. police],” said Tom Lynch, a police department spokesman. “And we haven’t changed anything about our posture.”

Ahead of the Republican lawmakers’ visit to the encampment, students sat in the shade among the tents, ate pizza on picnic blankets and talked with friends. Two towels air dried on a rope tied between a tree and a GWU light post. A “People’s Garden” had pots of za’atar, lemon, lavender, mint and sage.

At the center of University Yard, the statue of George Washington was covered in pro-Palestinian stickers. On its back rested a large dry erase board with community guidelines. The first one, in red, was “NO ZIONISM!”

Nearby was a green tent that over the last week had become home for Selina Al-Shihabi, a 20-year-old Georgetown University sophomore. Inside, there was a blue sleeping bag, boxes of Trix cereal and a book titled “A History of Modern Palestine.”

Al-Shihabi, who said her grandparents left Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1955, said she had been feeling depressed and “disillusioned with the real world” since the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Israel-Gaza war</a> began.

“Being at this camp was like the first time in six months where I actually felt excited to be awake, where I felt excited to contribute to a society where people care more about humanity than themselves,” she said.

The House Republicans walked through the encampment surrounded by layers of journalists. They passed signs with messages such as “FREE PALESTINE” and “JEWS 4 a FREE PALESTINE” — though it was unclear if they could see them through the crowd.

Stopping on H Street NW for a news conference, Comer vowed to “to do everything in our ability” to make D.C. police clear the encampment, and he said he will investigate at the hearing next Wednesday whether there were “outside groups paying for these types of activity.”

“Help is on the way for George Washington University,” he said.

Comer declined to name specific actions he would take if D.C. officials continued to order a restrained police response at the university.

As the lawmakers exited campus, Emily Weprin, a student at GWU, stopped Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and thanked her for urging Bowser to dismantle the encampment.

“Thank you for protecting Jewish students against terroristic ideals that are being perpetuated throughout the camp,” Weprin, who is Jewish, recalled saying.

Although Weprin does not typically agree with Boebert’s politics, including Boebert’s denial of the 2020 presidential election results, she said they have found “common ground” over this issue.

Meagan Flynn contributed to this report.

Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting, finalist (part of a team), 2020

Brown University, B.A.

Emily Davies is a reporter covering crime and criminal justice in Washington, D.C. She started at The Washington Post as an intern in June 2019.

Emily Davies

University of Maryland, College Park

Ellie Silverman covers protest movements, activism and local news. At The Post, she has also covered local crime and courts. She previously reported on retail, breaking news and general assignment stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer, her hometown paper. She graduated from the University of Maryland, where she reported for the Diamondback.

Ellie Silverman

House Republicans visit George Washington University over encampment

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Members of the House Oversight Committee visit the George Washington University protest encampment

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