Georgetown refuses to cut ties with Israel, stands up to pressure from students

Georgetown University has refused to cave to anti-Israel agitators, saying the Washington, D.C.-based instauration volition not divest oregon extremity partnerships with companies tied to Israel.  

The announcement from Georgetown University Interim President Robert Groves comes aft an undergraduate pupil assemblage referendum calling for the assemblage to divest "from companies arming Israel and ending assemblage partnerships with Israeli institutions" passed with 1,447 students voting successful enactment and 685 students voting successful opposition. Groves noted astir 7,200 full undergraduate students are eligible to vote. 

Student referendums are not binding connected the assemblage and bash not dictate assemblage policies, Groves said, explaining referendums service arsenic a somesthesia cheque connected the pupil body’s views. 

GEORGETOWN PRESSURED TO CANCEL EVENT WITH CONVICTED MEMBER OF PFLP TERROR GROUP

Two anti-Israel protesters clasp a motion speechmaking "WHY HASN'T GEORGETOWN DIVESTED?" successful Washington, D.C., connected March 23, 2025.  (ANDREW THOMAS/Middle Eeast Images/AFP via Getty Images)

"Georgetown volition not instrumentality this referendum, based connected our organization values and past and existing assemblage resources and processes that code our investments," Groves said successful an email to the assemblage assemblage connected Tuesday. 

He cited comments from erstwhile Georgetown University President John DeGioia, who resigned past twelvemonth aft much than 2 decades of work successful the presumption to absorption connected betterment from a stroke.

In 2013, DeGioia said, "a boycott of Israeli universities undermines the world state that is indispensable to the ngo of the Academy." The erstwhile assemblage president added that "as an world institution, it is Georgetown’s work to deepen engagement and foster dialog betwixt scholars and societies to heighten the full planetary world community." 

A protester waves a Palestinian emblem during a protestation against ICE, MPD, and different instrumentality enforcement agencies connected assemblage campuses successful Washington, D.C., connected March 23, 2025.  (ANDREW THOMAS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

JEWISH COLLEGE STUDENTS SAY THEY'RE SCARED TO GO TO CLASS, BLAME UNIVERSITIES FOR SILENCE ON ANTISEMITISM

"Our University remains opposed to immoderate specified boycott," Groves said Tuesday. 

Groves cited the Socially Responsible Investing Policy (SRI Policy), which was adopted by Georgetown’s Board of Directors successful 2017. It states, successful part, that the assemblage is committed "to exercising ethical management" of its endowment, which "shall not beryllium utilized arsenic a instrumentality to beforehand a governmental agenda." 

A protester waves a Palestinian emblem astatine Georgetown University connected March 23, 2025.  (ANDREW THOMAS/Middle Eeast Images/AFP via Getty Images)

"I admit determination is simply a wide scope of opinions connected the struggle successful the Middle East wrong our community," Groves said. "We person galore events to contiguous antithetic perspectives connected the conflict. Guided by the University’s Policy connected Speech and Expression, we volition proceed to support the close of members of our assemblage to freely explicit their views."

"We are guided by our ngo statement, which includes our content that ‘serious and sustained sermon among radical of antithetic faiths, cultures, and beliefs promotes intellectual, ethical and spiritual understanding’," Groves added. "This is simply a clip to promote specified discourse." 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The announcement comes arsenic the Trump medication has cracked down connected American colleges wherever anti-Israel agitators person taken implicit buildings and sections of field and hurled anti-Semitic rhetoric successful the aftermath of the Oct. 7 violent attacks. 

In March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an Indian doctorate pupil astatine Georgetown accused of spreading Hamas propaganda.