Police break up pro-Palestinian camp at MIT; 10 protesters arrested

Police cleared the pro-Palestinian camp on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus early Friday as protesters demanded that the school cut its financial and research ties with Israel. MIT President Sally Kornbluth said officials warned protesters four times that they would be arrested if they did not leave the area. Ten people who refused to leave the camp were arrested. “The escalation of the last few days with external threats from individuals and groups on both sides was a turning point. It was not going in a direction that could be described as peaceful. And.” “The costs and disruption to the community at large made the situation increasingly untenable.” “We did not believe we could responsibly allow the camp to continue,” Kornbluth said. The encampment, which began April 21, “violated the Institute’s clear, well-known policies to student organizers,” Kornbluth said as she outlined a timeline of key events leading up to Friday morning’s arrests. According to police reports, two MIT police officers were injured on May 6 when protesters and counter-protesters converged on the student center plaza. The reports also tell of the warnings that officials read through a megaphone early Friday before setting out to clear the camp. It said protesters were given an order to disperse and a 15-minute warning before officers entered the camp at 4:19 a.m.: “We will not stop acting. We will not stop letting the institution know that there is no more life.” “There is no normal life in Gaza. We will continue to show everyone that this complicity in genocide is unacceptable,” said student Quinn Perian. On Thursday there were clashes with the police in front of a parking garage at the MIT campus. Kornbluth said the group “prevented community members from coming and going to conduct their business and called for the closure of Vassar Street.” “They hope to bring the administration back into the negotiations on their demands,” Michel Degraff said. an MIT professor who recorded the altercation outside the Stata Center, which houses research laboratories. Protesters were tied with cable ties and arrested as they tried to stop cars from leaving the parking garage. “I definitely don’t feel safe,” said Marilyn Meyers, an MIT student. The ongoing protests have unsettled some Jewish students on campus who say MIT is not doing enough. “It seems to me like they think they have taken control of the campus and can do whatever they want,” Meyers said. “The administration continues to do too little and too late,” protested doctoral student Jessica Metzger in the camp on campus. She is now banned from teaching and research. “It’s very stressful,” Metzger said. “It’s a lot to put on someone just for participating in a peaceful sit-in.” The school says it has suspended dozens of students, but with the camp still standing, some are worried about graduation in three weeks. “Even if it doesn’t get canceled, I’m pretty nervous that it’ll still be put on hold, so it feels like a lose-lose situation,” Meyers said.