At a recent Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Vice Chair Burgess Owens questioned Georgetown University Interim President Dr. Robert Groves about the university’s repeated hosting of an antisemitic speaker. The hearing, titled “Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding, and Ideology,” focused on issues of antisemitism on campuses.
Owens highlighted the case of Mohammed El-Kurd, an activist known for controversial remarks, who was invited to speak at Georgetown four times over three years. Owens criticized the university for allowing such events.
“Would you allow a member of the KKK who wished for the deaths of Black Americans to speak at Georgetown? Why would the university allow faculty or students to invite Palestinian antisemitic bigots? Because that’s what this guy is,” Owens asked Groves.
Groves admitted that El-Kurd’s statements were “abhorrent” but struggled to justify his repeated appearances at the university.
Owens expressed concern about campus antisemitism being tolerated by academic leadership. He stated: “This hatred we’re seeing across the country is coming from our universities. Students arrive with dreams. They leave hating each other, and hating our country, and antisemitism is flourishing because of it.”
He reaffirmed the committee’s commitment to addressing antisemitism in taxpayer-funded institutions and warned of consequences for inaction. Owens declared: “Either eradicate this cancer, or there will be consequences. This is top-down, not bottom-up. We are going to make sure we change that.”
