Gill claims Virginia Tech 'abandoned' Palestinian students

When protesters set up an encampment at Tech University in April, Gill wasn't there to witness it begin, but he was one of 82 people arrested when police shut it down.

“I was out of town giving a talk,” Gill said, “and I really regret missing the first two days.”

Gill says he has always been politically aware, but his activism began around 2003, when the US invaded Iraq and the Second Intifada, the wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories that followed the collapse of the Camp David summit in 2000, was well into its third year. This series of events marked a political awakening for Gill.

“Palestine has always been at the heart of my beliefs,” Gill said. “I believe the issue of Palestinian liberation is crucial to a peaceful and balanced world.”

Gill was born and raised in Canada and first moved to the United States in 2018 when he joined the Political Science Department at Virginia Tech. As a professor, Gill specializes in political economy and political ecology. In particular, Gill's feelings about political ecology are influenced by his general anti-war stance.

“The impact of war on natural resources is something that hasn't been addressed much in the climate change movement,” Gill said.

Gill did not condemn the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas fighters that killed 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, and more than 200 hostages. More than 37,100 people have been killed in the ensuing war with Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

“Any loss of civilian life is of course a tragedy, but the demand to condemn Palestinian violence is always used as a way to deflect attention from the situation,” Gill said. “There is no question of condemning the violence that occurred between 2020 and 2022. The question is meant to apply to the context that everything was fine before October 7. Eight months after the genocide, I think it's absurd to ask people whether they condemn specific acts of violence without the context of what's going on.”

Gill can speak at length about the history of the region, beginning with the Nakba in 1948, when fighting during the establishment of Israel forced 750,000 Palestinians (about 80 percent of the region's Palestinian population) to flee.

From there, he went on to reminisce uninterrupted, talking about other significant events: the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964, the Six-Day War of 1967, the First and Second Intifadas, the intermittent conflicts of the mid-2000s and 2010s, and many other events leading up to the present day.

In particular, Gill spoke of two massacres: the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, in which Palestinians were killed by Zionist paramilitaries before the establishment of Israel, and the 2018 March of Return, in which Palestinians were killed on their way to the Gaza-Israel border.

“Palestinians were massacred for peaceful protest,” Gill said. “If peaceful protest is not allowed, what choice do Palestinians have?”

In Gill's view, Israel has always been a “colonialist project,” and when uprisings, peaceful or otherwise, occur, that project shows “genocidal tendencies.”

“The message is that if Palestinians accept permanent colonization and domination, they will be left alone,” Gill said. “If they don't resist, they will be allowed to live.”

Gill is a passionate historical figure who can speak at length on his subjects with little preparation. That's exactly what he has done at many protests, earning him a reputation as “the face of the protests,” according to others. Gill says he's not particularly happy about being described that way.

“I speak at a lot of protests and I try to do what I can, but I don't see myself as the face of it or as a leader,” Gill said. [Virginia Tech President] “Tim Sands' comments were that universities are abandoning Palestinian students, but this is the joint effort of many people.”

Sands clarified in November that his initial statement about the Hamas attacks did not mention the upcoming war between Israel and Hamas with Palestinians in Gaza in the middle, and noted that Palestinian students at Virginia Tech have access to the same resources as other students and should follow university policy to report any discrimination.

Gill said he received a stern warning from university officials about his involvement in the protests, but that as far as he knows, he is not at risk of losing his job. After the encampment was cleared, Gill's profile began to attract online notoriety. On X (formerly Twitter), a poster with the username @thestustustudio posted a video of Gill's lecture after his arrest. In the post, which has more than 1,500 likes and 143 comments, the user said he believes Gill is “someone with ties to a legitimate terrorist organization.”

Some comments on the post called Gill an “ungrateful immigrant” and called for him to be deported.

A trespassing charge against Gill from the April protest was deferred earlier this month in Montgomery County General District Court. State's Attorney Mary Pettit sent letters to those arrested offering pretrial diversion: the charges will be dismissed if they pay $99 in court costs and complete 25 hours of community service within six months.

Jack Leff, a graduate student who recently earned his degree from Virginia Tech and has participated in many campus protests himself, said he has known Gill since 2020. During that time, he said he has come to respect Gill's beliefs and dedication to students.

“I think in some ways he's intentionally making himself visible to take the pressure off undergraduates and to protect them from the backlash they might face,” Leff said.

Gill said he has received a lot of backlash, much of it racist, but the protests are worth the struggle.

“What I'm going through is nothing compared to what Palestinians are going through,” Gill said. “I sometimes feel like I'm not doing enough. This cause is worth speaking out for, even if it means losing my job or my position, because what kind of life would we have if we lived in a world where things like this were allowed to happen?”