BLACKSBURG — Pro-Palestinian protesters linked arms to protect Muslim participants during late afternoon prayers at Virginia Tech, minutes after student organizers warned of a potential police crackdown during a third day of demonstrations on Sunday.
Hundreds participated and more people watched as chants continued outside the Graduate Life Center on campus in Blacksburg.
Around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, police were setting up a a perimeter and warning anyone inside it to leave or be arrested, including media.
Buses with police officers were arriving.
The university issued an alert as well, warning of a heavy police presence in the encampment area.
The crowd redoubled on Sunday afternoon, as rumors spread about potential police intervention, said student organizers who requested not to be named.
People are also reading…
Protesters chanted that they wanted to hear from university President Tim Sands about the school’s stance on Mideast conflict.
“We’re not leaving Tim Sands,” the crowd chanted. “Until you meet our demands.”
Among those, protesters want Virginia Tech to divest any funds it has invested in Israel, and be more transparent about where the university’s foundation invests its money.
“Virginia Tech, pick a side,” the crowd chanted. “Liberation or genocide?”
Jack Leff, a graduate student and activist, announced into a megaphone that authorities wanted everyone gone by 6 p.m. The crowd booed.
“The police have threatened to clear the encampment,” Leff said. “If we do not leave, they are going to try to arrest us.”
He warned international students and people with prior arrests to leave and to not risk legal trouble.
“The more people that stay, the safer we all are. We keep each other safe,” Leff said. “But you have to make that decision for yourself and your family.”
On the scene, officers for Virginia Tech Police Department did not answer questions. Neither did university spokespeople when contacted by phone and email on Sunday.
“We’re going to bail you out as quickly as possible,” Leff said to protesters. “Hopefully by the end of the night, if you are arrested.”
Addressing the crowd, assistant professor of political science Bikrum Singh Gill said Virginia Tech is part of a nationwide student uprising.
“We know this institution profits from military-industrial weapons that are taking limbs off of children,” Gill said. “Using weapons that one way or another Virginia Tech profits from.”
Rather than hear out its students, Gill said he believes the university administration wants to threaten and intimidate using police.
“They’re trying to intimidate and silence us,” Gill said. “The more they try to silence us, the louder we will be.”
Muslim protest participants rolled out prayer rugs for their late-afternoon Asr, one of the five daily salat times in the Islam faith. Non-Muslim protesters locked arms and sat in a circle around the devotees.
Students waved the Palestinian flag, protesters wrote signage on the backsides of pizza boxes and a young boy led chants into the megaphone.
-Staff writer Payton Williams contributed to this report.