Protesters shouted, jeered and waved recording cellphones in the faces of lawmakers during their tense tour of George Washington University’s pro-Gaza camp.
Hundreds of people were at the university and adjacent streets to see the GOP galavant through the Garden of Gaza.
At the heart of the camp, towering Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., held court and received both questions and smears.
“How dare you call yourself a Christian,” accused a keffiyeh-wearing activist, “you are contributing to the genocide of the Palestinians.”
Donalds stopped and turned to the man. Then the instigator quit and left before the Republican could answer the question.
“Look, we don’t believe in debate here, we believe in shouting,” the Floridian said.
Then another agitator called Donalds, who is black, “Uncle Tom” and “a race traitor” before being told to leave by other activists.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., speaks during a news conference Wednesday after touring the pro-Gaza encampment in University Yard at George Washington University (GWU). Student activists have been protesting for almost a week, demanding the school’s expulsion from Israel
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The Republican sat in the middle of the encampment, close to the statue of George Washington, which is unrecognizably wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
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The visit was a show of force by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, who came to monitor the George Washington University (GWU) encampment to determine its impact on DC and student life.
“The House Oversight Committee is deeply concerned by reports indicating that the DC Metropolitan Police Department has denied George Washington University’s request for assistance in removing the radical, anti-Semitic, and unlawful protesters occupying the campus and surrounding public lands,” said Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. , said in a statement ahead of the visit.
He was at the university along with fellow Oversight members Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.
The committee has asked Mayor Muriel Bowser and members of the DC Metropolitan Police (MPD) to testify at a May 8 hearing regarding the student camp and the city’s response to the school’s request for assistance.
According to reports, MPD refused to intervene in the encampment despite requests from GWU to do so.
However, MPD is constantly present to direct traffic, close streets if necessary, and instruct passersby and demonstrators as necessary.
After dancing through the camp, followed by a horde of activists and media, Donalds arrived at a pre-set stage for the press conference where Boebert, Luna and Comer addressed a growing crowd.
“If they won’t do anything to address this, say goodbye to your federal funding,” Boebert said to boos.
“You can’t do that,” a female activist shouted back.
Comer (left) addresses a crowd of activists and media next to Boebert (center) on the street outside GWU
The Republican lawmakers’ trip to campus took only about an hour. Yet they were followed by crowds the entire time, making it difficult for them and others to move around
Then Luna, with a megaphone in her hand, said, “There are professionally organized protesters who are not students who are currently inciting what you see happening in this community right now.”
“There’s also a big difference between the First Amendment and peaceful protest and intentionally preventing people from getting an education (and) intentionally trespassing on property.”
The GWU’s pro-Palestinian protest has been going on for a week.
Students have camped there, as has happened at Columbia University and elsewhere. These activists have demanded that GWU divest from Israel-related entities, but the school is not backing down.
Some Jewish university students told DailyMail.com last week that they were “afraid” of the camp and that activists there often spread “pro-Hamas” messages.
The camp has consistently defied university demands to disband.
Instead, protesters and activists removed the fencing from the quad and threw all the barricades into a pile in the center of the encampment.
It stands there as a defiant reminder that the protesters are in charge.