Tensions increase at MIT as police block off campus encampment

Hundreds of protesters, including many high school students who had first rallied on Boston Common and then moved to MIT to join the protest there, chanted, “MIT your hands are red!” Across a walkway, dozens of pro-Israel counter protesters held American and Israeli flags and the now-ubiquitous “kidnapped” posters with photos of hostages; they sang Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem. A row of state police troopers and a series of metal barricades stood between the two sides.

One group of pro-Palestinian protesters briefly attempted to occupy the university’s soaring main entrance, known as Lobby 7, but police escorted them out after just a few minutes.

Pro-Palestinian protests have rocked campuses throughout the country in recent weeks in response to the ongoing war in Gaza. Israeli forces have killed more than 34,000 people, according to the local health ministry, since the war began with an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.

MIT protesters established their encampment about two weeks ago. Their central demand was for MIT to cut research ties with the Israeli military. The protest grew to about 30 tents, with about 100 students participating in protest activities during the day, and a smaller number sleeping there overnight. Kornbluth said in her Monday note to the community that administrators tried to engage in “serious good-faith discussion” with protesters, but the talks had not succeeded.

At about 2 p.m. Monday, MIT police was not allowing anyone to enter the encampment, and students could be seen clearing out their belongings. But hours later, protesters broke back into the area, with scores forming a human chain surrounding the remaining tents shortly after 5:30 p.m.

Around 1:30 p.m., students participating in the protest were handed fliers that explained their options and potential discipline they would face if they did not leave the encampment, including academic suspension that would prohibit someone from participating in any academic activities – including classes, exams, or research – for the remainder of the semester.

Baltasar Dimis, a first-year graduate student who has been sleeping in the encampment for over two weeks, stood by Stratton Student Center with a small group of other protesters who had not been inside the encampment when the eviction letters were distributed.

”They’re not letting MIT students or anyone with an MIT ID in, and they’re not letting legal observers in,” said Dimis, 24. “Which is concerning, because if anything goes down, there’s no one inside that can verify what’s going on.”

“It just seems like an another tactic to oppress protesting students that are just fulfilling their moral obligations to stop a genocide from happening,” Dimis said.

Around 2:30 p.m. Tanalís Padilla, a professor of Latin American history at MIT, stood beside the encampment with other members of Alliance of Concerned Faculty, a group of around 50 professors that “stand in solidarity” with student protesters.

”I’m feeling very disappointed that MIT wasn’t able to come to some agreement that would at least recognize the students and what they’re fighting for,” said Padilla. “What I’ve observed here is how disciplined the students are, how inclusive they are, how much they are working. They have worked really hard and have been successful at de-escalating even minor provocations.”

Padilla, who has been a constant presence inside the encampment since it was established, said she stepped out to use the bathroom when eviction letters were distributed to protesters. When she tried to get back inside the camp, Padilla said police would not allow her in.

Meanwhile, Eitan Moore, co-president of MIT Israel Alliance, said it’s “time that MIT enforces its policies,” as he watched the masses congregate near the encampment.

”This group has been illegally holding this encampment for a while and keeping us from enjoying the center of campus,” he said.

On Tuesday, an Israel Independence Day event was scheduled to be held on the site of the encampment, according to Moore.

“There have been extreme chants, which is surprising coming from a pro-peace, anti-war group,” he said.

Chants like “Globalize the Intifada” and “Down with the Zionists” are unwelcoming and antisemitic, he said.

Marilyn Meyers, a senior studying material science, electrical engineering, and computer science who identified herself as “proudly Jewish,” said she’s worried the encampment might interfere with her, and other seniors’, graduation activities.

“Even if the administration follows through to really shut down the encampment, you can hear the cheers of ‘Intifada.’ It’s clear that there’s students at this school who are advocating for violence against us,” said Meyers. “And it’s pretty terrifying.”

Kornbluth, in her Monday letter, said members of the MIT faculty and administration “have engaged in extensive conversation with these students and have not interfered as they have continued their protest.”

“However, given developments over the past several days, I must now take action to bring closure to a situation that has disrupted our campus for more than two weeks,” she said.

She added that “no matter how peaceful the students’ behavior may be, 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 situation is inherently highly unstable,” she said.

Citing bloody unrest at other campuses across the US, Kornbluth said that potential for violence is real. She said that an “outside group” was planning a disruption on campus this afternoon.

MIT’s ultimatum came days after dueling protests on its campus ended without violence. On Friday, a pro-Israel rally occurred at 77 Massachusetts Ave., which is across the street and about a football field away from the pro-Palestine encampment.

At the pro-Israel demonstration, protesters warned against what they saw as an encroaching antisemitism on college campuses. They said there is a double standard in the university’s treatment of the pro-Palestinian encampment that was erected last month just across Mass. Ave. from them on the Kresge Lawn. And they issued a clarion call for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

There were fleeting moments of tension and verbal sparring between the two groups on Friday, but the afternoon passed peacefully, unlike many campus demonstrations elsewhere in the United States in recent weeks.

Last week, more than 100 were arrested during a police crackdown at Columbia University in New York. On Thursday, officers surged against a crowd of demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, ultimately taking at least 200 protesters into custody after hundreds defied orders to leave.

In Boston, student encampments were broken up at Emerson College and Northeastern University in recent days, with scores arrested. At Tufts University in Medford on Friday, student protesters dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment.

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Danny McDonald can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @Danny__McDonald. Hilary Burns can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @Hilarysburns. Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @hempeledgers and on Instagram @lila_hempel_edgers. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @huffakingit. Alexa Coultoff can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @alexacoultoff. Daniel Kool can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @dekool01.