No matter one’s religious or political beliefs, there is no denying the anger and passion fueling the recent nationwide surge in student protests over the Israel-Hamas war. In the city, after a violent clash between police and demonstrators at Virginia Commonwealth University on Monday night, the streets are once again littered with proverbial eggshells.
To this point, Richmond is but a snippet. The pro-Palestinian movement has been slowly building in RVA for months, but so far most of the violent imagery flashing across our screens is from elsewhere: New York, California, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota — more than 2,000 have been arrested in nearly two dozen states. In Charlottesville on Saturday, the University of Virginia summoned state troopers to break up another peaceful pro-Palestinian encampment, violently arresting at least 15.
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As a prelude in the river city, demonstrators have been showing up at City Council meetings and political events, marching through the streets and collecting weekly at Monroe Park. Then came a flash point: On April 7, roughly 120 pro-Palestinian protesters crashed a book-signing event on Broad Street held by U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who was there to promote “Walk Ride Paddle: A Life Outside,” which chronicles the senator’s reflective, 1,200-mile journey across Virginia in 2019.
Kaine, like all of Richmond, must now figure out how to navigate the real rapids.
Taking cues from tent-pitching protesters across the country, organizers set up an encampment on April 29 — the “Liberation Zone for Gaza,” calling for a cease-fire and VCU to disclose and divest financial investments tied to Israel — on the lawn in front of James Branch Cabell Library.
It’s not yet reminiscent of the post-George Floyd protests that erupted and consumed RVA in the summer of 2020. The city, particularly Monument Avenue, became ground zero in the nationwide “Black Lives Matter” movement, and justifiably so. The former capital of the Confederacy was and remains the embodiment of America’s conflicted history — built on the backs of the enslaved, the vestiges of racial and economic segregation still wrenching.
Thirteen people were arrested on campus last week, including six students. Many others were injured, including police officers, who showed up donning riot gear and wielding smoke grenades and pepper spray. The protestors, the university says, were asked repeatedly to disperse and disassemble — roughly a dozen tents were erected — which violated university policy.
“While our community cherishes the right to peaceful protest, setting up structures on our campus lawn violated our policy,” VCU President Michael Rao said in a statement. “As has happened on other campuses around the country, conflict between police and protesters took place. I deeply appreciate those who peacefully expressed their views and the efforts of our staff during this time.”
In a letter obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, VCU Board of Visitors Rector Todd Haymore informed members of the board Tuesday that the university “worked for many hours yesterday to peacefully end the unauthorized encampment on campus.”
“I was in contact with the president and other members of administration leadership yesterday and expressed my support for the right for individuals to peacefully protest on campus,” Haymore wrote. “University staff and police respectfully and repeatedly asked individuals to comply with policies throughout the day.”
VCU, of course, has an obligation to prioritize student safety. The potential for violence is real — as we’ve seen play out across the U.S. Demonstrators who barricade themselves inside university buildings, as they did last week at Columbia University, or spark actual violence, as pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups did at UCLA, should be dealt with accordingly.
But the police response on Monday at VCU is difficult to reconcile. The protest itself was peaceful. Throughout the day, students chanted and danced, making posters and T-shirts, and there were no reports of violence — protesters harassing students, blocking entry into academic buildings or exhibiting threatening behavior — prior to law enforcement arriving in force, bedecked in shields and helmets, around 7:30 p.m.
This was an unnecessary escalation. VCU, which has the largest campus police department in Virginia (95 sworn officers and 200 security personnel), certainly has the manpower and capability to monitor a peaceful protest. If an encampment violates university policy, there must be disciplinary measures the university can take that don’t involve zip-tying and dragging students off the lawn. The tents had been erected just a few hours earlier. Suggestions that VCU exhausted attempts to negotiate the encampment’s disassembly are disingenuous.
“Universities that attack their students’ free speech undermine our democracy — as well as their own mandate to foster learning and the robust exchange of ideas,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Mary Bauer in a statement last week. “The First Amendment guarantees people in Virginia the right to protest, including on behalf of Palestinians, so we’re disappointed to learn that Virginia universities have deployed police against their own students for expressing their views about the ongoing conflict.
“We urge public officials and university leaders across the Commonwealth to refrain from interfering with students’ free speech, and to carefully distinguish between real danger and mere controversy. Universities are charged with creating environments that encourage students to exercise their First Amendment rights — not ones that have license to violate students’ civil rights and civil liberties.”
Antisemitism is no doubt on the rise since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza. Those factions within the pro-Palestinian movement who clearly deny Israel’s right to exist, chanting “globalize the intifada” or other thinly veiled calls for the eradication of Jewish people, should be publicly condemned.
However, free speech and the right to dissent and protest peacefully are the underpinnings of a free and democratic society. We must protect those rights — at all costs.
The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is long, painful and complex. There are certainly young people engaging in the pro-Palestinian movement who are likely unaware of the historical context that precipitated Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
But it’s also true that Israel’s military response in Gaza has wrought immense death and destruction that far eclipses the Oct. 7 attack: hospitals destroyed, humanitarian aid cut off, and more than 34,000 Palestinians killed in a span of just seven months, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.
And the region is currently on the precipice of another ominous incursion: Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to enter Rafah, a southern city in Gaza that Israel says is the last Hamas stronghold. Netanyahu says an attack is imminent regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck and despite the fact that Rafah is currently home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.
In other words, the pro-Palestinian movement in the U.S. is unlikely to subside. In a country where so many young people feel politically disenfranchised, the war in Gaza is seen as a breaking point. They are demanding a voice, to be heard. History suggests that dismissing their passion with the broad brush of antisemitism will only empower, not silence them.
Our politicians and university leaders need to make space for peaceful, public debate and dissent. It’s not always easy, but it’s critical to a functioning democracy.