BLACKSBURG — Minutes after student organizers warned of a possible police repression during Sunday's third day of demonstrations, pro-Palestinian protesters unloaded their weapons during a late afternoon prayer service at Virginia Tech. They carried them with them to protect the Muslim participants.
Bikram Gil, a professor at Virginia Tech and a fixture at student pro-Palestinian protests, said Sunday that after a discussion that police would move to clear the Graduate Life Center encampment, hundreds of people He leads the crowd in singing chants.
Peyton Williams
Hundreds of people took part, and many more watched as the chant continued outside the Graduate Life Center on the Blacksburg campus.
Student organizers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the crowd had doubled by Sunday afternoon as word spread about possible police intervention.
Demonstrators shouted that they wanted to hear from President Tim Sands about the university's position on the Middle East conflict.
“We're not leaving Tim Sands,” the crowd shouted. “Until you meet our demands.”
In it, protesters are calling for Virginia Tech to divest all funds invested in Israel and for the university's foundation to be more transparent about where it invests its money.
Others are also reading…
“Pick a side, Virginia Tech,” the crowd chanted. “Liberation or genocide?”
People formed a human chain in the middle of the Graduate Life Center lawn to protect the camp after police announced they would disperse the protesters by 6pm on Sunday. As hundreds of supporters gathered around a group of demonstrators, police postponed the crowd's dispersal time to 8:30 p.m.
Peyton Williams
When graduate student and activist Jack Leff announced through a megaphone that authorities wanted everyone out by 6 p.m., the crowd booed.
“The police threatened to vacate the camp,” Lev said. “If we don't leave, they'll try to arrest us.”
He warned international students and those arrested in the past to leave without risking legal trouble.
“The more people that stay, the safer we all will be. We will keep each other safe,” Lev said. “But it's a decision you have to make for yourself and your family.”
Bikrum Gil, a political science professor at Virginia Tech and a frequent speaker at pro-Palestinian student protests, spoke to crowds in time for Sunday's announcement deadline to end current demonstrations on university campuses. This is what he says to the Police ended up repeatedly delaying the time demonstrators were supposed to leave.
Peyton Williams
At the scene, Virginia Tech Police Department officers did not answer questions. A call and email to the university's public relations office on Sunday did not yield a similar response.
“We are going to bail you out as soon as possible,” Lev told demonstrators. “Once you're arrested, hopefully by the end of the night.”
Bikram Singh Gill, assistant professor of political science, told the audience that Virginia Tech is part of a national student uprising.
Jack Leff, a graduate student at Virginia Tech, told the crowd Sunday that they risked arrest if they remained.
Peyton Williams
“We know that this agency profits from military-industrial weapons that dismember children,” Gill said. “The use of weapons from which Virginia Tech benefits in some way.”
Gill said university authorities want to use police to intimidate students rather than listen to their opinions.
“They're trying to intimidate us into silence,” Gill said. “The more they try to silence us, the louder our voices will become.”
Muslim protesters rolled out prayer rugs for late afternoon al-Asr, one of the five daily prayers in the Islamic faith. Non-Muslim protesters sat in a circle around the believers with their arms folded.
Students waved Palestinian flags, demonstrators wrote signs on the backs of pizza boxes, and young boys led chants into megaphones.
As of 9 p.m. Sunday, the encampment continued without police intervention.
–Staff writer Peyton Williams contributed to this report.
Luke Weir (540) 566-8917
luke.weir@roanoke.com
