Virginia Tech panel on Middle East crisis proceeds without protest
BLACKSBURG — A panel discussion that was reported to have sparked controversy at Virginia Tech went off without it on Wednesday.
The panel is the first of a series of three scheduled throughout this and next week at the Carol M. Newman Library, dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on the panel series previously, saying that it had sparked controversy at Virginia Tech, specifically citing complaints from members of Hillel at Virginia Tech, a Jewish Student group.
Amanda Herring, the executive director of Hillel at Virginia Tech, expressed disappointment with the entire roster of speakers booked for the series.
“We are disappointed with the university,” Herring told the Times-Dispatch. “There’s not a single academic who [will] present a ... historically Zionist or even [a] centrist point of view.”
One of the three speakers at the first panel, Lev Grinberg, is an Israeli emeritus professor at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and a regular contributor to Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper.
Grinberg’s comments focused on how Hamas and the current Israeli government are responsible for the escalating violence that has occurred in the region over the last two decades.
“What I try to do here very briefly is to explain how both Israel and Palestinian political arenas became dominated by religious zealot entities ready to launch a total war until victory,” Grinberg said. “This is the clear goal of Hamas leadership and the Israeli government, and it might be a disaster.”
One of the speakers at the first panel, Lisa Hajjar, drew direct criticism from officials with Hillel at Virginia Tech, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch report.
Hajjar, a professor of sociology at UC Santa Barbara, was criticized for a post she made on X (formerly Twitter) showing a bulldozer with a Palestinian flag driving through an Israeli border fence. The post was made the day after the terrorist attacks of Oct. 7.
Hajjar said that she was not aware of the Hamas attacks when she posted the image, and the post has since been deleted.
In her speech, Hajjar focused on international law, and how international standards established in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 have been violated on both sides of the current conflict.
“Hamas’ use of missiles targeting Israel, especially since they are not particularly refined weapons, that would be considered a deliberate targeting of civilians,” Hajjar said. “But Israel has also targeted civilians over time.”
Hajjar spent a large portion of her remarks defining certain parameters of what constitutes a “war crime” under international law. In particular, what the international standard is regarding use of “human shields,” which the Israeli government has accused Hamas of doing on numerous occasions, and has been used as justification for targeting locations such as schools and hospitals in Gaza.
“Even if individuals are used involuntarily as human shields, the attacking side must be mindful of that, because human shields don’t lose their status as civilians,” Hajjar said.
The first speaker at the panel was Lex Takkenberg, a Dutch professor, author, and former administrator for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, focused his remarks on the refugees, and the major events in the last century that have displaced them.
“It is once again central in the current conflict,” Takkenberg said, referring to the historical displacement of Palestinians. “Since 7 October, according to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs, 1.7 million of the total Gaza population of 2.3 million are internally displaced.”
The panel was attended, in person, by about 30 people and, over Zoom, by 71 at the beginning, though many people left early, as the presentation started about a half-hour late due to technical difficulties.
There was no protest of the event, though police officers were posted outside the room as a precaution.
The next panel discussion is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, and is set to focus on historical context for the conflict.
Hillel at Virginia Tech has expressed interest in having another panel discussion added later, but the status of that plan is unknown. No representatives from Hillel at Virginia Tech immediately responded to requests for comment.
In the report from The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Herring said that she was concerned that the panels would “... feed into the alienation of Jewish students ... (and) subject (them) to further hate on their own campus.”
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