George Mason University is now facing federal scrutiny over anti-Semitism complaints after its president, Gregory Washington, repeatedly refused to issue a direct condemnation of anti-Jewish incitement—even as he denounced “Islamophobia” following unrelated violence 500 miles away. The Trump administration has opened a civil rights investigation into whether GMU “discriminated on the basis of national origin (shared Jewish ancestry)” by failing to address “a pervasive hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty.”
Emails show that nearly 20 law professors asked Washington to issue a formal statement denouncing anti-Semitism. Instead, he defended past language that lumped anti-Jewish violence in with “increased acts of violence and hostility toward members of the Jewish and Muslim communities.”
Meanwhile, after the Vermont shooting of three Palestinian students—which did not result in hate crime charges—Washington promptly issued a statement titled “Denouncing Islamophobia.” He told Palestinian students, “Mason is also your home,” while never offering equivalent assurances to Jewish students.
Even after campus radicals praised the October 7 Hamas massacre and authorities arrested a student for plotting a terrorist attack on an Israeli consulate, Washington refused to publicly denounce anti-Semitism by name. One law professor called it “shocking” and accused Washington of having “implicitly encouraged pro-terrorist sentiments and actions.”
In a defensive reply, Washington dismissed the criticism, saying the professor “continues to make accusations totally out of context,” and suggested it was “either ignorance or something more nefarious.”
