After backlash from the Jewish community in response to George Washington University’s (GW) promotion of professor and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist Ilana Feldman to interim dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, the university released a letter confirming their “clear and unambiguous” rejection of BDS, condemning antisemitism and guaranteeing that Feldman “will not be a candidate for the permanent position.” While GW’s statement is an encouraging step in the right direction, the university must follow through with swift action by appointing Feldman’s replacement, in order to assure Jewish and pro-Israel students that the university will confront the increasing antisemitism and harassment these students are facing at GW.

GW has an Israel problem and its Jewish students are suffering the consequences. In a New York Times Op-Ed, Blake Flayton, a progressive student, described being marginalized on campus due to his cultural, ethnic and political connection to “the homeland for the Jewish people.” In 2019, a couple of anti-Israel GW students shared a snapchat that included a graphic referencing the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana. In the snapchat, one student asked, “What are we going to do to Israel?” To which the second replied, “We’re going to f–ing bomb Israel bro, f– outta of here, Jewish pieces of sh-t.”   In March, after two of the 18,000-plus AIPAC Policy conference attendees tested positive for coronavirus, GW quarantined their 30 student delegates, none of whom had identifiable risk. The incident incited a wave of antisemitism on campus where anti-Israel students yelled “Oh! Yahood!…you produced it! You produced it! You started it!” to a student wearing a kippah. On social media, GW students tweeted that they were going to get coronavirus because some “Zionists [sic] mom tried to speak to the manager of pandemics” and because a “[white] supremacist” is bringing it to GW.

When GW promoted Professor Feldman despite her history of demonizing Israel and marginalizing Israel’s supporters, the university appeared inexcusably tone-deaf to the increasing hostility and discrimination that Jewish and pro-Israel students are experiencing at GW.

Feldman frequently glosses over terrorism when discussing the Arab-Israeli conflict. In footnote 14 in Feldman’s 2015 book, she blames the second intifada on Ariel Sharon’s “deliberately provocative visit” to the Temple Mount, despite Palestinian Authority leaders admitting that Yasser Arafat planned the second intifada before Sharon’s visit. She demonizes Israeli efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans and laments the international condemnation of Gazans’ electing Hamas in 2006, calling the election a way that “Gazans disqualified themselves from the victim category.”

Hamas’ founding covenant unequivocally calls for Jewish mass-genocide. Article 7 of the Hamas charter states that “Hamas has been looking forward to implement Allah’s promise whatever time it might take.” Then specifies that “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’” Similarly, Article 15 of the Hamas charter explains: “In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad. . . We must spread the spirit of Jihad among the [Islamic] Umma, clash with the enemies and join the ranks of the Jihad fighters.”  The clear expression of Hamas’ violent goals, however, does not warrant Feldman’s condemnation.

Feldman’s activism hasn’t been limited to her papers and books.  In 2016, Feldman urged the American Anthropology Association (AAA) to adopt an academic boycott of Israel in her effort to turn the world’s largest scholarly and professional anthropologist organization into a platform for anti-Israel activism. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) guidelines that Dr. Feldman promotes, demand that university administrators boycott academic and cultural institutions connected to Israel, whether or not the institution supports current Israeli policy. The guidelines direct administrators to assume that “Israeli cultural institutions, unless proven otherwise, are complicit in maintaining the Israeli occupation” since their “silence or actual involvement” “divert[s] attention from Israel’s violations.” The boycott guidelines also demand the boycott of “individuals” who “explicitly represent” Israel or “complicit institutions.” In effect, the guidelines single-out and deny scholars affiliated with any Israeli cultural or academic institution a voice in the international academic community.  The BDS vote failed in the AAA, but a similar resolution to divest from companies that do business with Israel passed just two years later through the student government at GW, where Feldman teaches.

Students worry whether, as interim Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, Feldman will respect GW’s commitment to an inclusive community. GW’s Provost issued a statement noting that as interim Dean, Feldman will be “required to comply with all University policies or actions, including those on BDS, and foster an atmosphere that allows all voices to be equally heard.” This is an important guaranty by the university.

GW students, like Blake Flayton, already feel marginalized and “pushed to the fringes” for expressing their Zionism and support for the Jewish homeland. While GW students can be optimistic about the university’s direction laid out in its recent statement, they will not feel comfortable as long as Feldman remains the Dean. The university can and should demonstrate its commitment to confronting the discrimination facing Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus by prioritizing the appointment of Feldman’s successor.