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Pro-Palestinian sisters banned from campus for four years over vandalism allegations; faculty said armed raid was due to ‘activism’

When George Mason University suspended the campus Students for Justice in Palestine group, and subsequently assisted in a police raid of its leaders’ home, it violated students’ free speech rights and targeted them for “activism,” according to supporters.

But in reality, it appears to have stemmed from concerns about items at the home of two sister leaders of the group.

Jena and Noor Chanaa had their family home raided by the FBI following allegations they were responsible for pro-Palestinian vandalism on campus in late August. Both sisters have been given four-year suspensions from campus. (The featured image is not necessarily one of the two students but is from the GMU Coalition for Palestine Instagram page).

The Washington Free Beacon reported more on the November raid on Monday. The Free Beacon reported, based on a review of documents and interviews, that the police “found firearms—modern weapons, not antiques—as well as scores of ammunition and foreign passports.”

It reported further:

They also found pro-terror materials, including Hamas and Hezbollah flags and signs that read “death to America” and “death to Jews,” according to court documents and sources familiar.

Police seized the weapons under Virginia’s red flag law, arguing that Mohammad Chanaa, the students’ brother and a George Mason alumnus, was “linked to destruction of property in connection with a large group of people with like-minded rhetoric” and posed a danger to others given his possession of “terroristic” materials.

Others had assumed the raid was simply about “activism.”

“The family and Mason faculty supporting them, however, believe they know what the FBI-led investigation was about: the young family members’ pro-Palestine activism,” The Intercept reported on Dec. 3.

“I’m worried for our students and I’m concerned for our schools,” faculty advisor Ben Manski told the publication.

Campus groups said the “targeting” stemmed from the Chanaas’ “advocacy.”

“We write with deep concern about the apparent targeting of two George Mason students for their advocacy for Palestinian human rights,” SJP groups and other progressive organizations wrote in a joint statement to university President Gregory Washington.

“The punitive actions imposed on these students stem from allegations of (the students were told) graffiti causing property damage in two campus locations, yet to date no evidence has been presented to support these claims,” the letter stated.

The campus SJP group regularly made radical statements in support of Hamas, as documented by the Free Beacon.

The sisters also allegedly ran an Instagram page called “gmuintifida.” The page has since been deleted but it had posted an ominous statement soon after the Aug. 28 vandalism.

“During the early hours of Wednesday morning, autonomous students left the imperial George Mason University a message: that the student intifada has been reignited, and that we will honor all the Gazan martyrs who did not live to witness this academic year,” the student newspaper the Fourth Estate reported in September.

“University’s administration’s across the nation have convinced themselves that they can suffocate the flames of resistance that have been unleashed since the inception of this genocide,” the group wrote.

“Yet, what they fail to realize is that their every effort to stifle our voices and eradicate our movement for liberation has only provoked an inferno that will engulf all systems of oppression that are upholding the genocide of the steadfast and honorable Palestinians.”

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IMAGE: GMU Coalition for Palestine/Instagram

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