Police searched the home of two students who serve as leaders of a chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at George Mason University in Virginia after they were accused of leading a group that vandalized the university’s student center. Authorities found firearms, pro-terrorism materials, and even flags of terrorist groups.
Police find guns and terrorist flags of Hamas and Hezbollah in home of Jena and Noor Chanaa, two SJP leaders at George Mason University.
They also found signs that said "Death to America" and "Death to Jews"https://t.co/Bh0hqAi7Vb pic.twitter.com/IXQxA0eUmn— Jewish News Syndicate (@JNS_org) December 11, 2024
Sisters Jena and Noor Chanaa, leaders of the SJP’s George Mason University chapter, were accused by authorities of leading a group of student radicals who defaced the university’s student center last August, where they spray-painted messages warning of a "student intifada." The Washington Post wrote in its coverage of the incident that the "activists spray-painted words on Wilkins Plaza outside the university’s Johnson Center."
After the incident, police were granted a search warrant by a Fairfax County judge that would allow them to search for and seize electronics at the Chanaa family home. But when officers entered the Chanaa family home, they found something more than electronics.
Inside their residence, police found, in plain view, modern firearms, scores of ammunition, and foreign passports, court documents show. Authorities also discovered pro-terrorism materials, including flags of Hamas and Hezbollah, which are designated as terrorist groups by the United States and elsewhere, and signs that read "death to America" and "death to Jews.”
The real world will be a rude awakening for them when they leave the tolerance of their institutional bubble.
— TX Patriot (@i8a3_14) December 10, 2024
Authorities seized the weapons under Virginia’s red flag laws, arguing that Mohammad Chanaa, Jena and Noor Chanaa’s brother and an alumnus of George Mason University, was "linked to destruction of property in connection with a large group of people with like-minded rhetoric" and posed a danger to others, given his possession of "terroristic" materials.
Virginia law enforcement officials removed the "long guns" from the Chanaa residence on November 7th, the day the search was conducted. Mohammed relinquished his 9mm handgun and his concealed carry permit voluntarily a day after the search.
He was not charged with a crime, as the state’s red flag laws allow gun owners 14 days to petition a judge to return the firearms, and Mohammad did so on November 21st. A Fairfax County circuit court judge granted his request as part of a civil case.
Gee I hope their name doesn’t pop up on a google search for future jobs.
— nyc isles (@nycisles) December 11, 2024
Jena and Noor Chanaa have been deeply involved in George Mason’s SJP chapter. Jena, a Master's student studying civil and infrastructure engineering, served as the chapter’s president last school year, while her sister Noor, an undergraduate student, took over as chapter co-president this school year.
Under their leadership, the George Mason chapter of SJP has endorsed Hamas and its "martyrs,” even issuing a statement two days after the brutal October 7 attack where the group praised the "liberation of the Palestinian people" and endorsed "the right to resist for Palestinians living under the Zionist occupation,” even saying that “every Palestinian is a civilian even if they hold arms. A settler is an aggressor, a soldier, and an occupier, even if they are lounging on our occupied beaches."
The group also went on to hold campus protests rallying support for "Palestinian martyrs" and "the resistance." In a pair of Instagram posts, Jena Chanaa wrote that her family comes from "Taytaba in North Palestine" and expressed willingness to "die in my homeland."
I could not be happier. We need to remove this plague that is spreading through the west and not only normalized in ideology and action but encouraged as if it is part of liberalism. SICK.
— Laurenk770 (@laurenk770) December 11, 2024
"76 years have passed since the forced expulsion of my family," Jena wrote. "76 years of resistance to the occupation. 76 years of steadfastness and determination. 76 years of the complete belief that we will inevitably return."
Following the search on the Chanaa home, George Mason University issued an interim suspension against its SJP chapter, and university police also served the Chanaa sisters with “criminal trespass notices barring them from campus for four years.”
