BLACKSBURG — The town council recently released a statement on the ongoing Middle East conflict, following weeks of protests and public comment by local pro-Palestinian activists.
The calls for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and called on locals to treat each other with respect and understanding, though it also made clear that the town has little influence in international affairs.
“While the Town Council does not typically weigh in on international affairs, we are not indifferent to such tremendous suffering and loss of life,” the statement reads. “All human lives are precious, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or geography. The devastating violence and dire conditions affecting civilians in the region constitute a tragic crisis on all fronts.”
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On April 9, the same day the statement was released, a council meeting was held where the statement was condemned by people who stood to make public comment.
Bikrum Gill, a professor of political science at Virginia Tech and a frequent speaker at pro-Palestinian protests in Blacksburg, criticized the statement, saying it is “insufficient.”
“I sense, after listening to the statement, fear or a lack of conviction that seems to be totally out of step with the reality we face,” Gill said. “This is not a case of two sides in a complicated conflict.”
Gill went on to say that he felt the conflict would be recorded in history as “the worst genocide of our time.”
Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith said she felt an undue amount of pressure had been put on the town council by the protestors, who seem to have focused on them specifically.
“I checked with Christiansburg and with Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, and they say that they haven’t had any of these protestors show up,” Hager-Smith said. “When I talked to some of the commenters about it, they told me, ‘We don’t feel they represent us.’”
Councilman Liam Watson reiterated that the town has very little influence on international policy.
“If you’d like to talk about something, talk to me about the people who go without housing or who go without food in our community,” Watson said.
Since the meeting, several council members have expressed concern about a protest that occurred after the meeting ended.
On the same day, Michael Alroy, an Israeli citizen who has written extensively about his experience as a transgender man serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), was scheduled to give a speech at Hillel at Virginia Tech. The speech was met with protest, and some of the protestors were the same people who had been making public comment at the town council meeting, according to Blacksburg officials.
Protestors have held similar interruptions of Alroy’s speeches at other universities. A week before, student activists protested Alroy’s remarks at the University of California, Riverside (UCR).
During that event, the protestors, members of the university’s branch of Students for Justice in Palestine stated that the focus of their protest was Alroy’s service in the IDF, and not necessarily the subject matter of his speech, which focused on coming out as transgender in the Jewish faith.
“We stand here in solidarity,” One of the protestors said, according to an article in UCR’s campus newspaper, “We are not here to oppose the transness of this man; we are here to oppose his violence.”
In a statement, Hillel at Virginia Tech said it is working with the university and campus police to address the protest.
“The most important priority for Hillel at VT is keeping Jewish students safe – first, foremost, and always. We are in close communication with university leadership and campus police to address this incident,” Amanda Herring, the organization’s director, said in the statement. “Jewish students and any Jewish speaker who comes to VT should be able to express their Jewish identities and support for the Jewish state without fear. We are resilient and committed to creating a space for Jewish joy.”