Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: tevenet/Pixabay
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(JNS) — A police search in conjunction with a vandalism investigation at George Mason University, a public research institution in Virginia, turned up weapons and the flags of terrorist groups at the home of two student suspects, according to recently released court documents.
Law enforcement acquired a search warrant under seal until February, according to a court in Fairfax County, Va., to search the family home of sisters Jena and Noor Chanaa on Nov. 7, following investigations into the Aug. 28 vandalism.
The sisters, leaders of the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, are suspected of leading a group of student radicals in defacing Wilkins Plaza outside the university’s student center and spray-painting messages that warned of an impending “student intifada.”
The group caused thousands of dollars in damage, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
In their search of the Chanaa home, police found multiple items of concern, including “several flags, paperwork, insignia and other materials displaying anti-American rhetoric and expressions indicating ‘Death to America.’”
The sisters’ brother, Mohammad, was also found in “possession of several firearms and ammunition,” as well as “‘Hamas’ and ‘Hezbollah’ flags, which have been deemed terroristic and a threat to the American people by the U.S. State Department,” according to law enforcement.
The university suspended the SJP chapter and issued a trespass order on Nov. 8 barring the Chanaa sisters from campus for four years.
The action and police search of the Chanaa home has been denounced by more than 90 advocacy and faculty organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the George Mason University chapter of the Jewish Voice for Peace.
