In the shadow of injustice, legacy of student protest is reborn
What do you do when you see injustice taking over the world?
The answer, at least for students around the world, is to take a stand for what is right, consequences be damned.
Ever since the protests began against Israel's genocide in Palestine, American students – heavily invested in the proceeding due to the role their government plays in funding the massacare – have also gotten an idea of how much freedom of expression they actually enjoy.
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The protests have been met with force and threats rather than dialogue, with even a group of pro-Israelis attacking peaceful protestors.
Despite these, the students show no signs of ceasing their demonstrations.
Nahaly Nafisa Khan, a soon to be second year graduate student at Virginia Tech, says weekly protest meetings have been organised by pro-Palestinian student groups since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel. This was sparked by the university's clear leaning towards Israel, muting the voices of the Palestinians.
Initially these meetings were ignored, with the president of the university, Timothy Sands, releasing a statement condemning Hamas and supporting Israel, while making no comment on the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Virginia Tech gets a great deal of funding for drone-related research with direct links to manufactures in Virginia who have deals with Israel, which probably plays a role in how the university deals with the matter.
The meetings at Virginia Tech sparked into life following the protest at Columbia University on 17 April.
In Virginia Tech, the meetings turned to encampment on the Graduate Life Center lawn on the 26th of April.
This sit-in protest remained peaceful for three days until the 29th, when the university authorities called the Virginia State police to remove the protestors.
"A mass call was made on the Instagram pages of the pro-Palestine student organisations to the people of the town of Blacksburg to join the encampment and resist evacuation and arrests.
"They Initially cordoned off the area and asked the students to leave the site, but when the protestors refused, they eventually began arresting those who would not comply," Nahaly said.
The crowd grew agitated however when one of the students was tased for resisting.
According to Nahaly, there were approximately a thousand student protesters and bystanders surrounding the GLC lawn on Sunday (28 April).
In total over 80 people were arrested, of which 54 were students, two were professors and the remaining were residents of Blacksburg.
The protesters were released the next morning as student organisations ran a donation campaign overnight to collect bail money for the arrestees.
When asked about whether she believed dialogue could be opened with Virginia Tech, she said, "So far, I don't see any willingness on the authority's part to initiate a dialogue. They are just trying to avoid the responsibility they have towards the students and the faculty members."
Since then, the Office of Student Conduct within the university has additionally issued hearing dates and begun to charge these students with five counts of Student Conduct violations, including disorderly conduct, failure to comply, unauthorised entry of public property, failure to observe rules/regulations, and involvement in University Violations.
Sands released another statement after the arrests accusing the protests of anti-semitism, a charge denied by Nahaly, who said that there were no such chants.
According to her, there were several Jewish residents protesting in solidarity with "not in our name" placards.
If anti-semitic sentiments truly existed, it's highly doubtful those residents would have felt safe joining them to begin with, she added.
In fact, rather than anti-semetic statements, Islamophobic and racist insults targeting the protestors were far more common, Nahaly said.
She also claimed a hate crime had occurred at a protest several weeks prior, where two people, including a student of Virginia Tech began to hurl racist insults at a group of keffiyeh-wearing protesters and girls wearing hijabs, who were also accompanied by an elderly Jewish man supporting them.
The two attackers seemed to specifically target those wearing hijabs, and attacked the man holding a "not in our name" placard.
They were arrested and then released when the man said he didn't wish to press charges.
Within the university tensions are high, though Nahaly said she received support and protection from her friends within the campus.
She also acknowledged that others may not be so lucky with potential threats of expulsion or suspensions hanging over students.
"Ultimately it's the authority's narrative that gets the say in any sort of decision making when it comes to international students like myself holding on to their employment and scholarships", she told The Business Standard, before revealing that there is a "certain aura of discomfort about voicing your opinions in academic settings".
When asked whether she felt that the constant accusations of anti-semitism were a cover for ingrained islamophobia, she said she was unsure about how much such sentiments were true, but that "it's definitely this evasion of responsibility and refusing to acknowledge Palestine as an entity and valuing Palestinian lives and narratives".
As of 2 May, the protest camp has moved to the hill opposite its initial position, which remains cordoned off. Whether the university will choose to apply force instead of dialogue again remains to be seen.
The protesters are aware of the chance of police brutality, yet refuse to be intimidated.
"Every morning I wake up to news from Gaza and Rafah. I also wake up to news from Columbia and other schools. Then I go to teach and attend classes and pass by the undergrads still holding their grounds at the GLC lawn. This gives me at least some hope," Nahaly said.
As the massacre rages on in Palestine, these brave students thousands of miles aways have become part of a turning point in history, seeking to change what they see as an injustice in the only way they can.
"My instinct tells me this is only going to get bigger. Is it also going to be worse in terms of police brutality? Absolutely. But we also need to remember that every act of resistance to such brutality makes a statement and perhaps that's what we need to pressure those holding power over us. Brown University and UNC did it, the rest of us can do it too."
Nahaly and those across the world protesting against the injustices they see are the inheritors of a proud legacy that stretches across the world, from Bangladesh in 1952 when students rose up to defend the Bengali language, and died for it as police fired into the crowds to the US anti-war protests in the 1960s and 70s against the war in Vietnam, which resulted in intense violence and arrests against them.
This new generation of students are standing up to those with power over them, risking much in order to do so, however as Nahaly concluded, in the end, "you will always find allies in the most unusual places. You will also find hatred in the most unusual and progressive spaces as well. But if this bothers you, remember what students in Columbia have been saying. Suspension for Gaza really is the highest honour in such circumstances."
