It looked like a battle was brewing. A group of about 10 students, wearing yarmulkes and Israel’s blue and silver, had arrived early to take front row seats in a UVA law school classroom. Their purpose was to show their support for the Middle Eastern country that the speaker, Harvard University research scholar Sara Roy, might attack.
Before the April 1 talk began, flyers were distributed that showcased Roy’s most inflammatory statements, including “Israeli soldiers openly admit to shooting Palestinian children for sport,” and, “There is no difference between the German soldier and the Israeli one.” Sensing the tension, the introductory speaker took care to remind the crowded audience that “debate can be robust and vigorous, but it must be respectful.”
Without fuss, Roy, invited by the law school’s Human Rights Program, took the podium to begin her one-hour lecture. Her speech focused solely on the plight of the Palestinians, but there were no remarks demonizing Israel.
“I’m not opposed to Israel,” said Roy. “I’m opposed to what they’re doing.” She cited facts about how Palestinians have been economically slighted, limited, and cornered by the Israeli faction and have become, in essence, “animals living in a barn.” At the heart of Roy’s lecture was her opinion that it is impossible for the Palestinians to develop culturally or economically under military occupation and that the “separation of Arabs and Israelis is unworkable and unsustainable.”
Despite the tense beginnings, the event never got out of hand, even during the Q&A. The most confrontational question posed was why Roy doesn’t address and condemn Palestinians’ violence against Israeli civilians. Roy, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, said she hates violence but sympathizes with the Palestinians in that everything has been taken away from them. They have nothing to loose, Roy said. “Most unfortunately, violence has become their only voice.”
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