The Students for Peace and Justice of Palestine filed a Bias Incident Report and notified the Minority Rights Coalition yesterday after the organization painted Beta Bridge to support Palestine's United Nation's bid for statehood, only to find that the message had been desecrated the following morning.
The students finished painting "Palestine deserves a state" on the bridge by 12 a.m. Thursday. By 8 a.m., a white block had been painted over the word "Palestine" and the word "deserves" had been struck through, SPJP Outreach Chair Sara Almousa said.
"I've been getting a lot of concerns from the community," said fourth-year College student Omer Abdulhamid, an SPJP member who first saw the painted-over message. "A lot of people are very hurt by this."
Almousa reported the incident through the "Just Report It" feature on the University website, which allows students to submit Bias Incident Reports.
"It's not that they had written slander on it, but they specifically targeted [our message] and tried to make sure it was ruined," Almousa said.
SPJP members will meet with Associate Dean of Students Aaron Laushway tomorrow.
"We'll have a conversation with the students and support them and listen to their concerns," Laushway said.
Allen Groves, associate vice president and dean of students, explained that after students file a report, the Office of the Dean of Students meets with those students and investigates the incident based on available evidence before developing "an appropriate response."
"At times the appropriate resolution is to encourage a community response to the offending speech, consistent with the First Amendment," he said.
Groves said interpreting this incident is challenging because it is unclear whether the changes to the message sent a political statement or were bias-motivated. He added that someone could potentially say his action was a political statement made in response to another political statement.
Groves added the best response to situations like these is more speech. "Anytime things like this happen, it's very upsetting to the students involved," he said. "We don't see a lot of this at U.Va., but occasionally acts do occur targeting different groups and different viewpoints. We want a community where everyone respects each other even if they disagree"
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