By Wilbert Ramirez, Politics Reporter
Two House Bills introduced in the Virginia General assembly seek to stifle student protesters’ demands.
House Bill 2529 and H.B. 2207 have drawn the criticism of Students for Justice in Palestine at Virginia Tech. The Instagram page run by “sjpvtech,” called to action against the bills by posting a template to contact representatives in the Virginia General Assembly.
House bill 2529 introduced by Del. Micheal Jones (D) and Del. Dan Helmer (D), seeks to prohibit public institutions in the state of Virginia from divesting all funds from “any country or territory that is not the subject of an active sanctions program administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.”
“It would make it harder for Virginia tech to divest, but not impossible said Shahed Sanuri, a first-year graduate student at Virginia Tech and co-president for Students for Justice in Palestine. “So the movement is only stronger and only grows stronger and from the way we’ve seen people come together, to we combat these bills.”
H.B. 2529 would make it difficult for any student organization to have any significant policy change at all public institutions in Virginia. The bill appears to narrowly focus on the demands of many of the protestors across the Commonwealth that were arrested at public universities in 2024 around the state that included: the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Mary Washington.
The pro-Palestinian protestors at Virginia Tech were arrested the night of the April 28 in front of the Graduate Life Center Lawn at the public university. 82 individuals were arrested, and the University President Tim Sands released a statement on April 29, after the night of the arrests.
House Bill 2207, which is a companion bill, introduced by Del. Terry Kilgore (R) and it is aimed at tackling terroristic threats on public institutions in the state of Virginia.
The companion bill to H.B. 2207, H.B. 1284 introduced by Sen. Bill Stanley was struck down on Jan. 27 by a Virginia Senate Education Subcommittee.
“It would put a lot of innocent international students as well as other people who are legally here, but not citizens at risk for simply participating in protests or even so much as like posting about their support for Palestine,” says Bella Gilbert, a sophomore majoring in Political Science Virginia Tech and outreach coordinator for SJP at Virginia Tech. “And even though one of the bills says, that deportation is conditional on pro-Hamas expression, we can safely assume that it will just be contingent on pro-Palestinian support.”
Critics from the Pro-Palestinian organization have expressed that these bills if they were to pass, they would make it more difficult for their organization to protest on public institutions.
“The bills basically ban protests from campuses and when we say, ‘liberation for Palestine is liberation for all’ this is what we mean. This is why we’re fighting for the liberation Palestine now and we’re fighting against these bills because these bills don’t just affect the Palestine movement that they affect any movement that’s to come. It just portrays a deep sense of U.S. imperialism and how the U.S. government tries to just target student protests,” Sanuri said.
“These bills are very narrowly tailored, by the way and are in reaction to the camp and the protests last year the arrest. I feel like anyone can look at these bills and see that they are a direct attempt to silence our movement,” Gilbert said.
In recent months the SJP voiced their grievances against the university’s policy 5000 which was altered in Aug. 2024 by university administrators at Virginia Tech, the policy change restricts encampments on university property from midnight to 6 a.m.
“Regardless of whether the bill is possible or not, regardless of what the government wants to do, regardless of how the administration wants to silence us, just know that Palestinian movement will always grow stronger, and we’re always going to fight for the liberation of Palestine,” Sanuri said.
H.B. 2529, as of Jan. 25, 2025, is being analyzed in a fiscal impact statement from the Department of Planning and Budget that informs lawmakers about the financial consequences of the bill.
H.B. 2207 as of Jan. 24, 2025, is also currently under analysis in a fiscal impact statement from the Department of Planning and Budget.
It is unclear where many lawmakers stand on the bills given the controversial actions and consequences of each bill need to first be assessed in the new session of Virginia’s legislature.
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