Activists at MIT tore down fences around the Kresge Oval and reoccupied their camp despite threats of suspension from the administration, and Harvard students marched to interim president Alan Garber’s house in a unified act of escalation against violence in the Middle East as the school semester comes to an end.
Students occupying MIT’s encampment, which was established April 21, were given a written warning by the administration that threatened an immediate interim academic suspension for anyone who didn’t leave by 2:30 p.m. Monday. Fewer than 10 activists remained by the deadline.
MIT’s Coalition Against Apartheid advertised a rally at 4 p.m. on campus, and activists from across Boston poured onto campus to see whether the administration would make good on its threats. Around 20 activists supporting Israel in its attacks on Gaza waved American and Israeli flags from under the eaves of the Stratton Student Center, but their chants were drowned out by the hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists that filled the plaza by Massachusetts Avenue. Cambridge and Somerville state Reps. Mike Connolly and Erika Uyterhoeven attended the rally, and three news helicopters buzzed over the area alongside a police drone.
Simultaneously, nearly 100 students from nearby high schools occupied Massachusetts Avenue with a sit-in and raised a banner renaming the road to Sidra Hassouna Avenue. Hassouna, a 7-year-old Palestinian girl, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in February alongside two of her siblings, her parents, her grandparents and her uncle. Students at Columbia University previously renamed a building they occupied to Hind’s Hall, after a 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces.
At 4:28 p.m., around two dozen state police officers marched onto campus and formed a barrier between the opposing groups. An hour later, sensing the police were occupied, a handful of activists clambered over the fence and ran around the nearly deserted encampment, exhorting the crowd on the other side of the fence to do the same. Other activists began to tear down the opaque sheeting tied to the fences, and then, realizing how easily the fence sections tipped over, simply pushed the fence over piece by piece.
The first section to fall electrified the rally. Activists made short work of the rest and rushed into the camp, locking arms and forming a defensive ring around the tents. When the dust settled, more than half of the fence’s perimeter was lying in the dirt, and more than 200 activists stood in an encampment that had been nearly empty just minutes before. The police had not moved from the barrier in the corner of the plaza, standing still as the fence sections fell like dominoes.
Over the next two hours, activists carried boxes of food and art supplies into the camp and urged bystanders to join them in sustaining the campaign’s second lease on life. After engaging in sporadic confrontations, the pro-Israel group left campus by 7 p.m. and the activists in the encampment settled in for the night.
“We still have much work to do to resolve this situation,” said a statement released Monday by MIT’s president, treasurer and chancellor. “And will continue to communicate as needed.”
A few miles away, pro-Palestinian activists from Harvard’s encampment were escalating too. Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee organized a rally at 7 p.m. at Johnston Gate, outside university walls that had been closed to outsiders for weeks. It was just hours since Garber told protesters they faced involuntary leaves of absence if they continued their camp in Harvard Yard.
More than 100 activists marched from the rally point to Garber’s house, trailed by Cambridge police officers on bikes. The activists towed a giant inflatable watermelon slice – the fruit is a staple part of the region’s diet that happens to include the colors of the Palestinian flag, and has come to represent the conflict. “Harvard University, we know which side you’re on,” the activists chanted. “Remember South Africa, remember Vietnam!”
The organizing coalition behind Harvard’s encampment – Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine – had delivered an ultimatum to the university Friday that it must begin negotiating their demands by 5 p.m. Monday, according to the Harvard Crimson. They did not specify what would happen if the university did not.
The day ended with no reported arrests for either school.
A stronger
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The kids are alright
The kids don’t have a clue.
From The Crimson:
“Another speaker suggested that Garber could quickly lose the support of the University’s two governing boards.
“Garber thinks he can ignore us and maintain his support from the Harvard Management Corporation,” the organizer said. “His mistake is that he thinks the Harvard Management Corporation and the board of trustees will keep him safe. He thinks that they’ll stand behind him as he ignores student voices.”
“But let’s remember that in December, the Harvard Management Corporation released a letter expressing unequivocal support of Claudine Gay before forcing her to less than resign a month later,” the organizer added. “The Corporation won’t save you, Alan.”
I visited the MIT encampment a while back. It felt like a living museum. There were signs with data, artwork, names of cities, all really quite brilliantly done.
Both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives were peacefully represented (with neither side attacking or vandalizing the other). There were a few other perspectives as well (from generic pro-peace / both-sides-are-wrong to mocking rich white protestors).
It seemed like a very nice free speech zone, a healthy place for civic discourse, and at the time at least, a good place to bring a child to learn about the world.
I’m not quite sure why MIT would want to tear that down. It really feels like something quite magical one could build from. This seems like it could deliver value to MIT students, to the broader communities, and to lead the kinds of dialogues which eventually might help find a pathway to peace in Israel and Palestine.
Perhaps MIT could, instead, invest in supporting the protest to continue to be peaceful, civil, informed, and representative of diverse perspectives?
@zoid89
At MIT, the encampment area is normally by many students.
The encampment area should be a place where everyone has equal access. That is not the case today.
Why should the encampment area favor the few over the rights of the many? It shouldn’t.
Good question, one should wonder why MIT is siding with outside protests sponsored by a foreign nation (Israel) over their own students.
Finally, MIT has had enough. Clearing them out. Perhaps the campus can get back to some semblance of normality.
This is not over, but at least this is the beginning
of changing things. Finally, the overwhelming number of students who do not like a part of their campus being taken over by a small number of protestors, will be able to get back to a somewhat normal state.
All those protestors calling for divestment from companies doing business with Israel e.g. Google, Apple. Are they willing to give up their Google emails, their MACs. Of course not.
Finally reason prevails at MIT
Kornbluth offered her explanation for moving to remove the encampment: ”As president, my responsibility is to the whole community: to make sure that the campus is physically safe and functioning for everyone, that our shared spaces and resources are available for everyone, and that everyone feels free to express their views and do the work they came here to do,’’ she wrote. “As you will see, in numerous ways, the presence of the encampment increasingly made it impossible to meet all these obligations.”