‘Vicious’ antisemite speaks at Georgetown, despite concerns from Jewish groups

Mohammed El-Kurd, who said Jews have an “unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood,” speaks at Georgetown; dean brushes off Jewish students’ concerns.

By World Israel News Staff

Georgetown University’s law school hosted a talk on Tuesday evening by a social media celebrity who has said that Jews have an “unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood,” despite the concerns of Jewish advocacy groups.

Mohammed El-Kurd, a media personality who has repeatedly accused Israel of harvesting and trafficking organs from Palestinians and described Zionists as “sadistic, barbaric Neo-Nazi pigs” was invited by Georgetown Law’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

News of El-Kurd’s talk sparked a response from the NGOs StopAntisemitism and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which urged the university to intervene and disinvite him.

“Administrations like Georgetown’s state they’re against antisemitism yet allow Jew haters like Mohammed El-Kurd to freely spread hatred against Jews on their campuses,” StopAntisemitism wrote on its twitter account on Monday. “Enough is enough — cancel El-Kurd’s speech ASAP!”

“Mohammed El-Kurd has a long, ugly history of antisemitic incitement & conspiratorial rhetoric that goes far beyond reasoned criticism of Israel,” the ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblat tweeted. “Outrageous & indefensible that @GeorgetownLaw invited him to bring his hate to their campus.”

In a statement, the ADL noted that El-Kurd has a long history of “unvarnished, vicious antisemitism.”

El-Kurd’s tweets include repeated denials of Jewish indigeneity to Israel, a fervent “hope” that “every one of” the Israeli settlers “dies in the most torturous & slow ways,” and “that they see their mothers suffering,” and that Zionism is genocidal and dishonest.

During a meeting with Jewish students concerned about El-Kurd’s campus appearance, Georgetown Law’s dean said that the university prioritizes free speech.

“We allow a huge amount of latitude even where speech is deeply offensive to some members of the community, some or even many,” Dean Mitch Bailin is heard saying in an audio recording of the meeting obtained by the National Review.

“Those are things that we think are important to educational values, to promoting free speech, to promoting a free discussion of ideas, even if those ideas are deeply, deeply offensive.”

Notably, Georgetown swiftly suspended professor Ilya Shapiro for tweets in which he criticized President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court.

Shapiro wrote in January 2022 that Supreme Court justices should be selected based on their abilities rather than on race or gender.

He added that Biden’s declaration was a disservice to qualified black female candidates, who would have an “asterisk” next to their names.

Unfortunately, Shapiro wrote, people would wonder if they were given the job due to their qualifications or because of their ethnicity.