Georgetown probes student event headlined by convicted terrorist; advocates demand it be canceled

Georgetown is facing demands from a pro-Jewish legal advocacy group that has said the university must cancel an event headlined by a convicted member of a Palestinian terror group.

An image provided to Fox News Digital of flyers hung around Georgetown's law school campus advertising the controversial event with Ribhi Karajah. (The Lawfare Project)

Karajah, a U.S. citizen, was arrested, along with two members of the U.S.-designated terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and spent 3½ years in prison for his involvement in an August 2019 roadside bombing that killed a young Israeli named Rina Shnerb and seriously injured her father and brother. Karajh was informed of intimate details of the attack by associates within the PFLP and subsequently admitted in a plea agreement he did nothing to stop it. 

JEWISH STUDENTS AT GEORGETOWN LAW FEAR VIOLENCE AMID HEATED RHETORIC FROM CLASSMATES AND ANTI-ISRAEL GROUPS

Karajah also spent several months in an Israeli prison in 2017 while attending Birzeit University, a school known to be a hotbed for terrorist sympathizers. According to Jewish activist Adar Rubin, the director of mobilization at End Jew Hatred, Karajah has promoted PFLP leadership on social media and spoken at PFLP-sponsored events. 

While the student group cited inclement weather on social media as the reason for postponing Karajah's event, it said in a statement that, two days before the event, the law school instructed the student group to postpone the event so that the university "could conduct a thorough investigation into serious safety and security concerns that had arisen in connection with the event." 

Now, The Lawfare Project, a legal advocacy group that supports students facing antisemitism on campus, is calling on the university to cancel the event. In a letter sent to the dean and vice dean of Georgetown's law school Wednesday, The Lawfare Project cited federal law against providing material support for terrorism.

Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent trip to the nation's capital, he met with several U.S. college students and recent graduates who have been at the front of rising anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses. During the discussion with these students, Netanyahu was told about the event by Julia Wax Vanderwiel, founder and president of Georgetown Law Zionists. 

"[Netanyahu] had a very visceral reaction to my speech," she told Jewish Insider. "He’s appalled [about the upcoming event]. He said he knows exactly who [the murdered 17-year-old] is. He’s met the family. He said that we need to stay strong. He genuinely listened, cared and wants something done."

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Vanderweil added in comments to Jewish Insider that Karajah's "presence on our campus threatens the security of all Jewish students."    

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/georgetown-probes-student-event-headlined-convicted-terrorist-advocates-demand-canceled