Various Jewish groups have called for Virginia Tech to take action over an upcoming speaker’s “long history of targeting the Jewish community,” The Algemeiner and Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported.
The speaker, author Steven Salaita, is slated to be the keynote speaker for the Virginia Tech’s Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) Research Symposium and Exposition on March 23. In a petition, Hillel at Virginia Tech President Emeritus and GPSS Senator Briana Schwam, Hillel at Virginia Tech President Emma Josi, GPSS Senator Amir Gazar, and Friends of Israel at Virginia Tech President Eitan Meyers argued that Salaita “has a track record of making harmful, dangerous, and antisemitic statements, ranging from antisemitic blood libels to defending Hamas’s actions of targeting civilians. He is an avid supporter of a convicted terrorist, Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted in 1970 for bombing a grocery store in Jerusalem, killing two college students, and was arrested in another attempted bombing of the British Consulate.”
They also mentioned that the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC) denied tenure to Salaita in 2014 “because of the antisemitic posts and comments and [he] had to change careers because no university would hire him.” At the time, Salaita had left Virginia Tech for UIUC’s American Indian Studies Department––where he was going to get tenure––but UIUC rescinded their offer over Salaita’s tweets regarding the 2014 Gaza War. Among the tweets in question were those accusing Israel of “rounding up people and murdering them at point-blank range” and claiming that “Israel gets billions in aid, arms, and financial subsidies from the US, yet most Americans condemn imaginary Black women for welfare,” The Collegiate Times reported. Salaita said at a press conference at the time that the university’s actions put “any faculty member at risk of termination if university administrators deem the tone or content of his or her speech ‘uncivil’ without regard to the forum or medium in which the speech is made.” “The ability of wealthy donors and the politically powerful to create exceptions to bedrock principles should be worrying to all scholars and teachers,” he added. Salaita later sued the university, claiming that his comments were protected under the First Amendment; the lawsuit was settled for $600,000.
“Virginia Tech must take action to protect Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus that feel threatened by Salaita’s antisemitic actions,” Schwam, Josi, Gazar and Meyers wrote. “We ask that Virginia Tech leaders uphold the university’s motto of ‘Ut Prosim: That I May Serve’, reaffirm their opposition to giving known antisemites a platform, and condemn the GPSS Research Symposium and Exposition coordinator’s decision to bring Salaita as a keynote speaker due to his antisemitic statements.”
Stop Antisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez sent an email to Virginia Tech’s leadership on March 20 that reiterated the same concerns mentioned in the petition. The email, which was obtained by the Journal, stated in part: “Dozens of students of yours have been contacting our organization pleading for help to keep this rabid bigot off their campus; a petition has been started as well. Jewish students are expressing their safety is at risk when Jew haters like Steven Salaita are allowed to spread their venomous hatred on campus. I and my organization implore you to please make Steven Salaita persona non grata at Virginia Tech.”
Stop Antisemitism also tweeted out a screenshot of some of Salaita’s past tweets; one such tweet was Salaita wishing “all the f—ing West Bank settlers would go missing” after three Israeli teens in the West Banks were kidnapped and killed by Hamas in 2014, the beginning of the 2014 Gaza War. Salaita also tweeted: “F— Israel. F— Israel’s US sponsor. F— every media luminary who whitewashes Palestine. F— every politician who ever voted to fund the Zionist entity. And f— every leftist who ever insisted we had to vote for a Zionist” during the 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict. He also tweeted in May 2018 that “Israel was murdering civilians, stealing land, displacing natives, destroying homes, imprisoning children, and implementing apartheid before ‘Hamas’ was even an idea.”
A spokesperson from the university told Rez in an email, which was obtained by the Journal: “Free speech and our commitment to respect all people are strongly held principles at Virginia Tech, even though at times, these ideals can conflict. Some speech that promotes ideologies of hate, for example, is protected free speech under the First Amendment, yet as a community, we are all threatened by ideologies of hate.” The spokesperson added that “at moments like this, we support open expression within a climate of civility and mutual respect and strive to create an open and inclusive environment where all individuals feel safe and respected.” The spokesperson appeared to give the same statement to The Algemeiner as well.
Salaita has yet to publicly address the matter; on March 16, Salaita said that he was “really excited” for the event, stating that he has “plenty to say about my difficulties at Virginia Tech and the state of academe for grad students, instructors, and young scholars.” He and the GPSS did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment.