Stop the Jew Hatred at George Mason University
I thought I’d seen everything, but this really takes the cake. How could you even make this up: at Virginia’s George Mason University (GMU), the same student anti-Israel forces that were recently busted for signs that read “Death to Jews” (and “Death to America,” for good measure) are now pushing the student government for a new definition of antisemitism. Hint: it’s one that’s markedly weaker and less protective of Jewish students.
Suppose any other hate group showed up before a representative body of American college students demanding that protections be stripped from a minority group. In that case, one might expect them to receive a relatively short hearing, followed by likely disciplinary proceedings. But the university has reason to fear this constellation of radical activists and anti-Israel attorneys who are filing a simultaneous lawsuit to challenge in court GMU’s existing rubric, the international gold standard definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
Meet Jena and Noor Chanaa, two sisters and leaders of the GMU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a professionally-organized and (according to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies) Hamas-linked platform for student extremism. The Chanaa sisters drew the attention of authorities after spray painting messages on campus buildings that warned of a “student intifada,” causing thousands of dollars in property damage and potentially committing the felony of vandalism.
This offense is what convinced a county judge to grant a warrant to seize electronic evidence in the Chanaa family home. Authorities found more than they bargained for, turning up weapons caches, flags from the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and signs with threatening messages such as “death to America” and “death to Jews.” These extremist activities resulted in the banning of SJP from GMU’s campus, but it was–questionably–recently reinstated.
Their alarming conduct was reflected in their campus leadership. The Chanaas were leading members in GMU’s SJP on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, massacring over 1,200 in a single day – the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust – and taking over 250 hostages, including 12 Americans. Amidst the instances of mass rape by the Hamas invaders, the Chanaas’ organization wrote approvingly of “the right to resist for Palestinians living under the [Z]ionist occupation.” The Anti-Defamation League reports that “[i]n October 2023, SJP announced a rally at GMU, openly supporting Hamas and calling for actions against Israel, while encouraging protestors to bring face coverings to conceal their identities.”
From the same ugly circles at GMU came another student, Egyptian national Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, who caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for operating “several pro-ISIS and al Qaeda [social media] accounts that promoted violence against Jews.” Hassan was ultimately arrested for plotting a mass casualty attack on the Israeli consulate in New York involving bombs and a rifle.
How strange that these fanatics would be thought of as having anything to say about racism against Jews. The IHRA definition of antisemitism has been adopted by 35 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, and Australia. Importantly, it includes a set of explanatory examples, such as denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (like by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor), applying double standards, or comparing Israeli policy to that of the Nazis. The IHRA was formally adopted by GMU in March of 2025.
In 2021, a coalition of academics developed an alternate, weaker “Jerusalem Definition” of antisemitism, which is explicitly grounded in what the authors term “the Palestinian demand for justice and the full grant of their political, national, civil and human rights,” even using the maximalist language of Palestinian ultra-nationalists, ‘between the river and the sea,’ leaving little room for a sovereign Jewish state. The Jerusalem definition omits the IHRA’s explanatory examples and instead denounces the IHRA definition as being too quick to label antisemites.
Represented by an organization called Palestine Legal, which supported Hamas on October 7 and is known for defending violent campus protestors, GMU’s SJP chapter is now engaged in a lawsuit with the university over the IHRA definition of antisemitism. For reference, like SJP, Palestine Legal is tied to American Muslims for Palestine, a group that a judge recently ruled is directly tied to Hamas via financial and material support. In a Hamas-style recruitment video released by SJP, a keffiyeh-donning student claims the basis of the lawsuit is that the IHRA definition is inherently discriminatory. This was followed by a call to action: “the spirit of resistance will not be quenched until we see full liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”
Simultaneously with the lawsuit, the SJP activists are pushing the GMU student government to change the definition of antisemitism legislatively. The administration must hold firm on defending its Jewish and Israeli students, and must not cave in, neither to legal threats nor to intolerant student representatives.
GMU already has a troubled history with discrimination. In April 2024, the GMU Student Government passed a resolution calling for sanctions and economic warfare against the State of Israel. And in July 2025, the university came under federal investigation for antisemitism and discriminatory hiring. The Department of Education Office of Civil Rights found that they had violated Title VI for “policies that intentionally discriminate on the basis of race.”
Allowing committed and outspoken enemies of the Jewish people and Jewish state to define antisemitism is truly asking the fox to guard the henhouse. Our Jewish and Israeli students, like all students, deserve basic security, protection from discrimination, and a welcoming campus environment. GMU’s administration must stand with its Jewish and Israeli students by maintaining the IHRA definition and reversing its decision to reinstate the hateful SJP chapter.