Police have cracked down on another Massachusetts college where students have been urging officials to fully divest from Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Nine MIT undergraduate students and graduate workers were arrested Thursday as they protested in front of a parking garage on the Cambridge campus, according to the MIT Graduate Student Union.
“We must fight back to defend our coworkers now!,” the union said in an Instagram post Thursday evening. “EMERGENCY RALLY TOMORROW FRIDAY MAY 10, 3PM, LOBBY 7 STEPS.”
The MIT encampment has become embroiled in controversy this week, with dozens of anti-Israel students being suspended and referred to the institute’s Committee on Discipline for refusing to clear the tent site.
The suspensions come after President Sally Kornbluth warned student protesters that if they did not leave the Kresge lawn, where tents are set up, by Monday afternoon, they’d either be suspended, face other sanctions, or both.
Hundreds of protesters returned that evening, breaking through the barriers as they continued to call for the institute to end all research contracts sponsored by the Ministry of Defense of Israel.
Sanctions included a written warning, immediate interim academic suspension for the remainder of the semester and exclusion of participation in commencement and co-curricular activities, and academic suspension and being kicked off the Cambridge campus immediately.
Pro-Palestinian student organizations held Thursday’s “emergency” rally in support of those facing punishment.
“MIT issues interim suspensions against peaceful protesters, immediately evicting them from campus housing, cutting their employment, and barring them from all academic and research activities,” the MIT Graduate Student Union wrote in an Instagram post early Thursday afternoon.
“THIS DISCIPLINE IS DISGUSTING, UNJUST, AND ILLEGAL,” it added. “WE MUST FIGHT BACK!”
MIT’s student newspaper, The Tech, documented the afternoon’s protest and arrests with live updates.
“Protesters were observed being pushed to the ground and cuffed by police officers,” the paper reported at 1:55 p.m. “Several protesters were ziptied and forcefully moved away from the protest in front of the Stata Center garage.”
The chief of MIT Police told protesters to clear the driveway of the garage or “face arrest,” the paper reported at 4:05 p.m. It then added minutes later that “at least two protesters” were arrested and being taken to the Middlesex House of Correction and Jail in Billerica.
Activity came to an end after 4:30.
About 2,800 people have been arrested on 50 campuses across the country since April 18 during protests of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Associated Press.
Police arrested over 130 protesters at an encampment on the UMass Amherst campus after administrators ordered the students to disperse Tuesday night. That followed more than 100 arrests at Emerson and Northeastern as police broke down encampments on those campuses in late April.
