MIT students mark Israel’s independence
CAMBRIDGE — A metal fence served as a dividing line Tuesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as an annual MIT Israel Day celebration began on Kresge Lawn just feet from a pro-palestinian encampment that officials tried unsuccessfully to close down the day before, and some student protesters from the camp reportedly faced suspension.
With the lawn staged for dueling demonstrations, police stood before Stratton Student center, keeping their distance from both groups. Organizers of the 4 p.m. Israeli celebration set up a table with a large speaker, a microphone, and a stereo. Attendees filled their plates with pita, shawarma, and Israeli salad.
”Under the circumstances, it’s very good to show that we are independent and that we are proud,” Dvir Harris, an MIT student and one of the event organizers, said. “We won’t let anyone push us away.”
Harris joked that everyone in the encampment would soon be “expelled or suspended.” They should “come join us” while they can, he said. “Hopefully, in the very near future, you’re going to see this encampment go down.”
Earlier Tuesday, MIT’s chancellor, Melissa Nobles, said in a message to all students that “dozens of interim suspensions and referrals to the committee on Discipline are now in process” following the pro-palestinian protesters’ refusal Monday to leave the encampment, which led to students clashing with police and knocking down a barrier wall around the camp.
“As we said previously, these actions are necessary to ensure the safety of our community,” Nobles said.
Encampment organizers said Tuesday that they were not aware of any students who had been notified of suspensions or other disciplinary actions.
The MIT Israel Alliance said in a statement that its celebration is “an annual event held on Kresge Oval to celebrate the formation of the State of Israel, and with it the resurrection of Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland.”
The group said this year’s observance is especially important, as it follows the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Israel. Hamas also took roughly 250 hostages.
Israel has responded with a relentless campaign that has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities, and sparked protests and pro-palestinian encampments at MIT and other universities around the country.
The alliance said that while Israel’s Independence Day comes on May 14, this year’s event was booked months in advance to accommodate an MIT scheduling conflict. but the encampment changes the equation. “An illicit encampment has overrun the Kresge area, and for weeks continues to chant for our death and the destruction of Israel, and pledge support to terror and violence,” the alliance said. “but the Jewish people have a long history of facing down bigotry and hate, and here again we refuse to be pushed aside by hateful and violent rhetoric.”
An MIT spokesperson said the university appreciates “that organizers of MIT Israel Day followed the Institute’s processes in organizing their event for today, and MIT police and emergency personnel have arranged space for the event on a portion of the lawn and an adjacent part of campus.”
State Senator becca Rausch told the crowd she was grateful to be at the celebration. “You are not alone; you are loved; you have support,” Rausch said. “I’m so honored to be here with you, to be Jewish and proud and connected to Israel.”
Eitan Moore, an MIT sophomore and co-president of the MIT Israel Alliance, said the weeks since the encampment was set up have been “difficult” for Jewish and Israeli students. Moore said “violent,” anti-Zionist chants emanating from the encampment can be heard in nearby dorms. “That’s made me uncomfortable,” he said.
On Monday, protesters shut down Massachusetts Avenue at rush hour, clashed with police, and tore down a fence surrounding the encampment, hours after the university’s president gave demonstrators a 2:30 p.m. deadline to leave the site.
by Monday evening, the university’s effort to close the encampment had stalled; protesters had ripped down the tall, opaque fence the university had used to enclose the area, and about 25 tents and hundreds of protesters remained.
There were no arrests Monday, according to MIT and cambridge police.
At Harvard University, the dean of student services and several security officers tried to check the student ID cards of participants in an encampment there early Tuesday afternoon but were blocked by a group of students, faculty, and staff, according to a statement from the student group Harvard Out of Occupied palestine.
A short time later, Harvard Yard was mostly quiet, as a daily pro-Israel counterprotest moved through the campus, with about a dozen people holding Israeli and American flags as they marched around University Hall and circled the encampment, singing in Hebrew.
Travis Andersen of the Globe staff and correspondents Maddie Khaw and Ava Berger contributed to this report. Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at lila.hempeledgers@globe.com. Alexa Coultoff can be reached at alexa.coultoff@globe.com.