Georgetown University chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP), two organizations that support Palestinian liberation, sponsored a “Week of Rage” beginning Oct. 8 to honor the victims and condemn the violence in the year since Israel began its war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.
FSJP hosted a silent vigil Oct. 8 in Red Square to recognize one year of war in Gaza, while SJP hosted a different vigil Oct. 9 to commemorate the lives of Palestinian children killed by Israel, reportedly writing 1,400 names of Gazan children on a banner held during the vigil. Members of the Georgetown community also rallied in support of Palestine and student protest rights at American University (AU) on Oct. 8 and called for divestment at an Oct. 10 walkout and march around Georgetown’s campus.
A Georgetown student who attended the Oct. 10 walkout and march said the events were crucial in marking one year since the escalation of violence in Gaza.
“This week is especially important because it marks one year since the ceaseless onslaught, the genocide — the escalation, we’ll call it — from Israel,” the attendee told The Hoya. “And so because it’s been a year, it’s extremely important that we’re mobilizing every day. We’re out here.”
A member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a group of Jewish students committed to solidarity with Palestinians and Palestinian liberation, said the “Week of Rage” was important in channeling the emotions surrounding the violence into advocacy.
“The trauma that this has caused for people, anniversaries are extremely triggering for people and so people are feeling all kinds of emotions now — grief, rage,” the member said. “It’s really important that we’re able to channel those emotions, do something productive and fight for meaningful change at the university level.”
Military and political conflict in the region has been ongoing since before the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, which led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The most recent stage of the conflict escalated Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and other militant groups attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. According to Israeli authorities, 97 of the hostages abducted during the attacks remain in captivity, with 33 of those hostages presumed dead.
Israel’s military response to the attacks has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children; left over 96,000 people injured, with many hospitals destroyed; and displaced more than 85% of Gazans, amounting to over two million people. Israeli air strikes, sieges, blockades of aid and military operations in Gaza have led to a shortage of food, water, shelter and access to health care.
The attendee highlighted calls for Georgetown to divest from its holdings in major companies that hold contracts with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), such as Amazon and Alphabet Inc., Google’s holding company.
“We’re asking the question, ‘Why hasn’t Georgetown divested?’” the student said. “It’s in their responsibility investment goals, and they understand this is something that is completely against Georgetown values, yet they still won’t divest.”
Georgetown’s Socially Responsible Investing Policy, which guides how the university’s Investment Office allocates its endowment, includes a “do no harm” strategy. This strategy states that the university will “use reasonable efforts” to avoid investments “in companies that have demonstrated records of widespread violations of human dignity,” including companies that are “directly and significantly involved in the production of weapons that are intended to be used for indiscriminate destruction.”
A university spokesperson said that community members interested in proposing alternative investment considerations should turn to the Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility (CISR), which makes recommendations to university shareholders based on the Socially Responsible Investing Policy.
Fida Adely, director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, the university’s academic center on the Arab world, criticized Georgetown’s investment policies, arguing that the university’s failure to divest implicates it in ongoing conflicts.
“The United States is directly complicit in this genocide and is directly complicit in this unfolding war, expansion to Lebanon and the potential for World War III in the region,” Adely said during the Oct. 10 walkout. “Now if we have ever seen indiscriminate destruction, we have seen it this past year.”
“What we are asking of our institution is to live up to the policy that it already has and to show us how it’s making the effort to live up to its policies to not invest in companies that are indiscriminately killing people,” Adely added.
During the walkout, students chanted, “Not another nickel, not another dime. No more money for Israel’s crimes,” later chanting, “Georgetown, Georgetown, we know you, you are funding genocide too,” and “Admin, admin, grow a spine, stop funding genocide.”
Students who rallied at AU on Oct. 8 had initially planned to join a walkout at George Washington University (GWU), but shifted their plans after AU’s Palestine Solidarity Coalition — a student group that supports Palestinian liberation — hosted a vigil Oct. 7, during which police officers appeared with zip ties, seemingly prepared to arrest students.
A media liaison for the Georgetown students present at the AU protest said the shift from attending GWU to AU represented the need to support all student speech regarding calls for divestment from Israel.
“We’ve seen over the past week at all DMV schools some escalation on behalf of the university in terms of repressing through speech on campus, in terms of not protecting student safety on campus,” the liaison said. “It just shows the need for cross-campus solidarity, cross-movement solidarity.”
The Oct. 10 walkout attendee said “Week of Rage” is crucial in amplifying student voices that have been overlooked throughout the past year.
“After a year of crying out, a year of constantly applying pressure, we’re seeing that it’s not enough to just be in our circles or kind of be in an echo chamber,” the attendee said. “It’s important for us to take this out for students who are in their residence halls, for students who are learning actively to understand that while they’re learning and while they’re going about their life, people are dying, and it’s because of Georgetown’s investments, it’s because of the United States’ position.”
“As much as people want to ignore the genocide, we find it our responsibility to bring that to the forefront of their attention,” the attendee said.