MIT PRO-PALESTINIAN ENCAMPMENT CLEARED BY POLICE, ONLY TO BE REASSEMBLED BY PROTESTERS

MIT pro-Palestinian Encampment Cleared by Police, Only to Be Reassembled by Protesters

'In the last couple of days, the school put up these massive walls, and then an ID checkpoint – it's becoming more and more like how Palestinians live in the West Bank under occupation,' said one of the demonstrators, a graduate student at the university

May 07th, 17PM May 07th, 17PM

A pro-Palestinian encampment on Boston's Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus became the latest student-led protest to be cleared by local police, after MIT president Sally Kornbluth gave students a Monday afternoon deadline for voluntarily evacuating the area.

But even with heavy police presence on the scene, demonstrators returned later in the evening, breaking through police fencing and retaking the encampment.

The encampment was erected two weeks ago on the university's Kresge Lawn near busy Massachusetts Avenue. Activists have said they are specifically protesting the $11 million in research funding the school receives from Israel, which goes toward the development of underwater surveillance and robotic technology, the group Scientists Against Genocide said at the time.

On Monday, Kornbluth and the school's Chancellor, Melissa Noble, released a message to the MIT community with a list of possible options for protesters, including leaving voluntarily before the deadline and swiping their student ID as proof, which would result in only a written warning, or opting not to vacate and facing a potential suspension, including from commencement activities for those slated to graduate.

Kornbluth's statement emphasized that even with the campus demonstrations remaining largely peaceful, "unilaterally taking over a central portion of our campus for one side of a hotly disputed issue and precluding use by other members of our community is not right."

"This prolonged use of MIT property as a venue for protest, without permission, especially on an issue with such sharp disagreement, is no longer safely sustainable," the statement reads. "I note that the faculty-led Committee on Academic Freedom and Campus Expression recently concluded that these actions, a form of civil disobedience, carry consequences."

According to MIT Professor Erica James, who spoke to local Boston media, around 4 P.M. on Monday, about eight people remained inside the encampment – three faculty members and five students. Videos circulating on X seem to confirm this report.

"For faculty, it's a question of supporting students' rights to protest, even when sometimes it means to go against certain rules for the sake of what they view as a larger moral and ethical issue," James said in an interview.

An hour or so later, around 5:30 P.M., a large group of demonstrators returned to the lawn and began tearing down the barricades that had been erected around the largely-deserted encampment, encircling the camp, and linking arms with one another.

In a statement released at 9 P.M. on Monday, Kornbluth said about 150 people remained near the tents. "While no arrests have been made on campus, police officers remain on the scene to preserve public safety," she wrote. "We have much work still to do to resolve this situation, and will continue to communicate as needed."

David Berkinsky, a graduate student in chemistry at MIT participating in the protests, told local news outlet Boston.com that MIT didn't conduct negotiations in good faith before they sent out the notice to vacate the encampment.

"Today was the culmination, I think, of a lot of frustration," Berkinsky said in an interview. "In the last couple of days, they put up these massive walls, and then today, they put up an ID checkpoint, and it is becoming more and more and more like how we see Palestinians living in the West Bank under occupation."

"When students brought the walls down today, I think it was very symbolic," Berkinsky continued. "Anytime anyone tries to put people in walls, those walls are inevitably going to come down."

High School Students Join the Protest

A group of about 200 high school students from a dozen schools in Massachusetts cities including Boston, Cambridge and Somerville also protested on MIT's campus.

Another group of students blocked traffic on Massachusetts Avenue, the busy street just outside the university, by sitting in the street and writing messages like "free Palestine" and "defund and divest" in colored chalk on the pavement.

According to the New York Times, campus protest organizers said they worked with the local high school students to help plan their visit but were kept a safe distance from the actual encampment.

"We're taking this upon ourselves to enact the change that we see our government lacking," 16-year-old Alma Shawer, a student at Lexington High School, told Boston.com. "We want to get the adults in the world that otherwise don't seem to care what's happening all the way in Palestine, and force them to care."

Counter Protest

MIT's student newspaper, the Tech, said that on the day police moved in to clear the encampment, a dozen or so counter-protesters also gathered near the tents, although police kept the two groups separated.

Standing among dozens of posters depicting the Israeli hostages which were displayed near the Kresge, the protesters waved large Israeli and American flags and used megaphones to blare sirens or comment on what pro-Palestinian protesters were chanting. At one point, "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus was played, the Tech reported.

The co-President of MIT's Israel Alliance posted to her X account a letter addressed to campus leadership stating that the group's planned May 7 Israeli Independence Day celebration, for which they reserved the use of Kresge Law, will go on as planned.

"Over 200 Israeli and Jewish undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty have signed onto the letter sent to you yesterday morning, stating that we will be present on Kresge on May 7, as planned," the statement reads. "We will hold our celebration of Jewish self-determination, as planned. And we will do so without stooping to the level of violence and hatred embodied by the encampment."

2024-05-07T14:28:36Z dg43tfdfdgfd