Arlington leaders say they are trying to lower the temperature in their sometimes-heated relationship with pro-Palestinian activists who appear at monthly County Board meetings.
In recent months, activists have held private meetings with individual Board members, which Board Chair Matt de Ferranti and County Board member Julius “J.D.” Spain, Sr. said have been constructive.
“You all and we have come a long way,” de Ferranti said at the County Board’s Jan. 24 meeting.
It’s unclear if activists agree with this assessment. Speaker Kishori Mahulikar used the public-comment period that starts meetings to criticize Board members for sticking with previous rules that limit debate during that time.
The rules adopted for 2026 kept a requirement that only one speaker could use the public-comment period to address an issue.
“Time and time again we have witnessed this rule be used arbitrarily and selectively, and often weaponized against statements regarding divesting Arlington from Israel’s genocide in Palestine,” Mahulikar said.
“This rule is being used to silence certain topics entirely,” added Mahulikar, who also voiced support for an ethics policy for the county government.
Nevertheless, Spain said that “I think we’ve moved the needle, collectively, in conversations” toward “tangible outcomes.”
“There’s a way for us to come together,” Spain said to the contingent of activists occupying several rows in the Board room.
For several years, activists have pressed Arlington leaders and those of other Northern Virginia governments, including Fairfax County and Alexandria, to stop partnering with Israel, and firms that provide weapons to Israel, on economic-development efforts.
Organizations have also conducted protests at a number of Arlington homes and at at least one local office during the period. Earlier this month, activists shut down parts of Tysons to protest banking giant Capital One’s relationship with an Arlington-based weapons company.
A succession of Board chairs, most notably Libby Garvey and Takis Karantonis, have pushed back against many protesters’ demands, saying the county must treat economic-development partners equally and that Arlington can’t have a foreign policy of its own. Garvey and Karantonis said they personally were sympathetic to activists’ concerns, but that the matter should be addressed to leaders at the federal level.
Responding to Mahulikar’s criticisms of the one-speaker-per-topic rule, de Ferranti, who was elected by his colleagues to chair the body in 2026, said his goal was to “implement the rules as we have them in a consistent way.”
He acknowledged the five members of the body discussed potentially revamping the rule for the new year, but opted against doing so.
“I take it as a fair point that that’s not the robust discussion that you’d like,” de Ferranti said.
Board members have agreed to host two town-hall meetings during the year with the community, where presumably issues of interest can be addressed by anyone who signs up.
“That will be a full, open forum,” Board member Maureen Coffey said.
The first one is slated for May 4.
