An Afternoon of Encampment

I spent the day talking to both sides at GWU's protest

Note: The following is an account of my visit to George Washington University's pro-Palestine protest on Sunday, April 28.

In recent weeks, anti-Zionist protestors have set up tent cities on university campuses nationwide. Clips of protestors squaring off with the police and pro-Israel counterprotestors have made the rounds on social media, causing much discussion. Some, such as Commentary Editor John Podhoretz, have found the protests so concerning that they have demanded the National Guard be called in. It is a volatile and complex situation, one that highlights the greatest fault line in the left’s coalition. 

That all being the case, I decided to head to the closest encampment to see things for myself. Both Georgetown and George Washington University are within walking distance from my home, but seeing as how the former did not appear have any protests, GWU it was. 

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. The streets were crowded, and my walk was pleasant. On the way to GWU, I passed through Georgetown, which was having some sort of French festival. But I only had a few hours, so I continued along. As I approached the outskirts of the university, I saw the first sign of the protests: a vandalized statue of George Washington. 

The equestrian statue of George Washington (Washington Circle)

Titled Lieutenant General George Washington, the bronze statue was created by self-taught sculptor Clark Mills and unveiled in 1960. Like many other statues in D.C. – Mills also sculpted the Andrew Jackson statue outside of the White House – it is not only a pleasant sight but also a symbol of American greatness. 

Of course, the pro-Palestinian ingrates who scrawled “Free Gaza” on its base do not share this view. To them, America is not too different from Israel. Both, in their view, are the products of colonialism and therefore illegitimate. Regardless of one’s position on U.S.-Israel relations, it should be clear that these left-wing protestors are hostile to everything that matters.

I kept walking and soon reached the university. Having never been to GWU before, I found it underwhelming. It is a small campus, one you can walk through unknowingly. I stopped for a latte and a pastry at a nearby café before proceeding to the encampment. 

After leaving the café, I grew slightly concerned that I would not be able to locate the protest, but I managed to find it with ease. The cop cars were a giveaway. I passed by a few people at the outskirts of the encampment as I made my way down the street. They were discussing the war in Gaza from what appeared to be a pro-Israel perspective. I had officially arrived. 

The outskirts of the encampment

At the corner I turned left and reached the encampment, which was located on a small side street. Police barricades were placed in the road but no such obstacles existed on the sidewalks. Unlike similar protests elsewhere in the country, people here appeared to come and go as they pleased. (I later learned that this was not the case at GWU overall.)

I walked up and down the block a few times. It was an interesting scene, to be sure, but nothing surprised me. Chalk messages condemning Israel and the U.S. government covered the ground. A few dozen tents sat in the road. More were placed in a courtyard on one side of the street, but this was blocked off by police barricades. I saw protestors on the other side. A row of tables with free food – much of it Middle Eastern in origin – lined one side of the street. 

After turning left, I found myself on this street, which is where the action was

As far as the crowd was concerned, there were perhaps a few hundred people. Most did not appear to be students. There were many Muslims, some of whom were there with their families. I saw a Jewish girl wearing a yarmulke sitting on the curb and sewing. She was there to protest Israel’s actions as well, and she was not the only Jewish person doing so that afternoon. 

After a few minutes of scoping out the location, I concluded that it was, at least for the time being, fairly safe. I was less worried about being attacked and more concerned that I might be ejected before I had explored the encampment to my satisfaction. That, fortunately, did not happen.

You can see the perimeter of the encampment (minus the inaccessible parts closer to the brick buildings) in the following video as I walk down the side street:

I walked back to the outskirts of the protest and approached the people whom I had earlier overheard discussing the war: a couple in their late 50s and what appeared to be a female graduate student. All three were Jewish and appeared to be secular – or at the very least, not Orthodox. I asked if they minded if I listened in. They smiled and said sure. 

The man was making the case for Israel’s war in Gaza. In light of the Oct. 7 attack, the Jewish state’s actions were justified, he argued. Yet he also expressed dissatisfaction with Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right advisors, Bezalel Smotrich, and Itamar Ben-Gvir. He likened the last two to Trump, whom he was sure to tell us he detested. But he said that, as an American, he did not feel that it was his place to tell the Israelis how to govern.

His position – support for Israel combined with a moderate aversion to the Likud party – is not uncommon for American Jews, who tend to be liberal and secular. They can be accurately characterized as Zionists in light of their support of Israel as a Jewish state – they just object to its dominant right-wing government. This dynamic mirrors a growing divide within Israel between secular liberal Israelis and the hardline religious right, which I wrote about last year. 

The man continued, telling us about the threat Hezbollah poses to Israel. He wrote a book on the subject, in fact. His younger female interlocutor listened intently, waiting for her chance to speak. She expressed support for Israel but felt that it was growing harder for her to rationalize its status as an exclusively Jewish state. I imagine that this dilemma – liberal egalitarianism versus Jewish ethonationalism – is increasingly common among younger American Jews.

I lost interest in the conversation after ten minutes and decided to walk around elsewhere. Before leaving, I thanked them for allowing me to listen in, and I asked the man the title of his book. “Israel’s Struggle With Hezbollah,” he responded. I looked it up later. It appears to be well received on Amazon if not exactly a best seller. 

The barricades seen here prevented non-protestors from venturing further

I made my way back to the encampment. At the corner, I noticed a middle-aged Jewish woman and her teenage son engaging in a heated discussion. She wore a shirt in Hebrew, while he sported an IDF sweatshirt and a kippah. They meant business, and the protestors took notice. 

The mother and her son were debating what appeared to be a girl. “She” was wearing a facemask and, at one point, revealed himself to be transgender – to prove his moral worth, of course. He was Jewish, as was another transgender person who eventually came over and took his side. They argued that Israel was committing a genocide. The son responded that the population in Gaza was increasing, so therefore there no genocide was taking place. 

The scene grew increasingly heated. A man walked by and shouted something about Netanyahu killing babies. A news crew, seeing the action, rushed over and inserted a camera between the two sides. Things came to halt, however, when a white guy in a reflective vest appeared and urged the anti-Israel protesters to disengage, which they did. 

I captured some of their exchange on video:

The guy in the reflective vest can be heard but not seen at the end of this video, which marked the end of this heated exchange:

I walked back down the side street to check out the encampment again. People milled about as before, the only difference being that there were now people passing around a microphone. A man sang loudly in Arabic into a microphone. I found it grating.

I did a lap around the tent city and worked my way back to the street corner. The teenaged Zionist watched as his mother was talking to a news anchor. The interview quickly wrapped up, so I took the opportunity to strike up a conversation. 

I walked up to her and asked if she had a minute. She did. I asked how she felt about the fact that so many of the pro-Palestinian protestors were Jewish. I told her it