MIT students extend their peace camp after negotiations fail

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS – AFP

Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have expanded their peace camp against genocide by Israel in Gaza after they said negotiations with the school had gone nowhere.

MIT is among several universities where students are calling on administration to divest from Israel.

“We saw what they did at Emerson. We saw what they did in Northeastern,” said Joe, an MIT student and member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “We saw what they did at Columbia, where you have the campus police, the city police, state police, the city government, the politicians all working in collaboration to try to crush the movement. And they’re doing it because the movement is working,” said Joe, who did not give his last name.

Muhammad, another MIT student, said that the administration was not “actually willing to review and cut their programs with the killer drones.

“. . . the negotiation team from the encampment has had their meeting with the president. This is after two weeks of negotiating with the vice president of research, negotiating with the vice chancellor, and negotiating with the administration as a collective, it’s very clear that they played around, they’re giving us games,” said Muhammad.

“They cannot confirm that their drones are not used in Gaza. They cannot confirm the drones are not used in offensive military action in Gaza. They cannot confirm any of their drones are human rights compliant. So it was our duty as students to expand the encampment. We gave them a good deal. We told them end the killer drones program, and we will end the encampment, but they refused. And now it’s up to the administration. Do they value that their students and do they value the voice of the grad student union who voted 70% to cut ties and the undergrads who voted 64% to cut ties, or do they value their relationship with the Israeli Ministry Defense, a foreign military defense that MIT makes weapons for.”