Tensions erupt between House Republicans, students during visit to George Washington University encampment

WASHINGTON

Tensions erupted at George Washington University’s campus in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday between pro-Palestine students and Republican members of the House of Representatives who visited the site of an encampment there.

Amid ongoing demonstrations at universities across the US in solidarity with Palestine, Republican representatives James Comer, Byron Donalds, Lauren Boebert, Anna Paulina Luna and Eric Burlison visited the encampment site on the campus, a focal point of protests in the nation's capital.

The Republican lawmakers met with the school administration, demanding the removal of a tent camp which had been set up by students for a week now.

Later, students reacted strongly to the lawmakers' presence as they toured the tent camp and its surroundings under heavy security, expressing their opposition to US “complicity" in the Gaza conflict.

Security guards accompanying the representatives occasionally dispersed demonstrators, while other students loudly sang and used megaphones during the representatives' press conference, calling for support for Gaza.

During their media appearance, the lawmakers criticized Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, and police chiefs, demanding the immediate removal of the tent camp.

Comer said that Jewish students at the university felt unsafe and condemned any form of anti-Semitism, deeming it unacceptable in the US.

After the press conference, students continued their protests as the representatives left the tent camp area.

Pro-Palestine college campus protests have remained under way across the US since students established an encampment at New York’s Columbia University campus in mid-April.

*Hakan Copur contributed to this story