Email or call David Randall, the head of the division of student life at MIT, at 617-253-4052, and tell him to revoke this unjust ban immediately.

Email MIT administrators to express your reflection of their punishment and suppression without due process.

Read more from the author of the banned essay about his piece and reflections on the unjust ban by MIT administration.

sally.kornbluth@mit.edu; iaw@mit.edu; nelsonsm@mit.edu; cbarnhar@mit.edu; chancellor@mit.edu; glenshor@mit.edu;

zuber@mit.edu; egrimson@mit.edu; zurmanv@mit.edu; mnobles@mit.edu; office-

of-the-president@mit.edu; wespich@mit.edu; drandall@mit.edu; erindf@mit.edu; peko@mit.edu; sipser@math.mit.edu; mitogc@mit.edu; mdiv@mit.edu; tamschap@mit.edu

• We are committed to the liberation of Palestine.
• We support the right of oppressed and occupied people to resist their oppression.
• We fight for Palestinian liberation within the broader movement for liberation of all oppressed peoples.
• We defend the right of every human to lead a life of dignity.

• We demand that MIT cut its ties with the genocidal "israeli" military by transitioning all projects funded by the "Ministry of Defense of Israel" to alternative funding sources. In addition, we demand that MIT cut its corporate partnerships with companies which support apartheid and genocide in Palestine, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, and Project Nimbus by Google and Amazon

• We demand that MIT take actionable steps to reduce policing on campus, including by disarming the MITPD and bolstering alternative emergency response and mental health services. In addition, we hold MIT accountable for the rise in anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, and anti-Arab rhetoric on campus. Finally, we demand that MIT overhaul its current disciplinary process through OSCCS, COD, and IDHR which has been largely orchestrated by administrators in the DSL and upper administration due to the explicit discrimination against pro-Palestine voices.

“We are over 6 months into the genocide in Gaza.”

We have let life go on, let business go on as usual, while a genocide has been broadcast to us for months. Meanwhile, MIT has received OVER $11 MILLION in research funding from the Ministry of Defense of Israel since 2015. Multiple labs on this campus are performing sponsored research for the material benefit of the Israeli Occupation Forces. As recently as March 2024, such funding has been renewed.

It is unconscionable. It is immoral. It reflects a gross disdain for human life and human dignity that this institution, MIT, has chosen to embody.

To MIT, we charge you in the brutal genocide of the Palestinian people for your explicit role in providing scientific and technological support for the Israeli Occupation Forces' and their crimes. The students and workers of this campus have made our demands CLEAR. In the last month, undergraduates in the Undergraduate Association and grad workers in the Graduate Students Union PASSED referendums demanding that MIT stop accepting blood money from the Ministry of Defense of Israel, the same entity enacting the genocide in Gaza. We have shown that we are with the Palestinian people, and now is the time to act.

We are what make MIT the place that it is. They use our labor to advance their prestige. They use our student culture to improve their image. We are so much stronger as a community, and if you have ever wondered what YOU can do, this is it. The students of Columbia, Yale, Rutgers, and countless other schools, with the resilience of their Gaza solidarity encampments, have shown us what it means to resist the powers of our complicit institutions and fight collectively. Come support the encampment. Come now.

Ask yourself what it would take to compel us to act. Then ask yourself if the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in this genocide are enough for us to act. Ask yourself what business this institution has to maintain ties with a genocidal state after six months.

Today, we say that we refuse to give our labor to genocide. We refuse to make space on this campus for genocide. We will not rest until MIT cuts research ties with the Israeli military.

Our people at MIT have shown that we stand in solidarity with our steadfast siblings in Palestine. We rebuke the complicity of our institution, and today, we take the next step together in fighting for what we believe in.

“To MIT, we charge you in the brutal genocide of the Palestinian people for your explicit role in providing scientific and technological support for the Israeli Occupation Forces' and their crimes. The students and workers of this campus have made our demands clear.”

Statement by student organizers of SAGE @ MIT:

Data source: Information about MIT research funded by the Israeli Ministry of Defense was collected by students from MIT’s ‘Brown Books’ (formally the Report of Sponsored Research Activity from the The Office of the Vice President for Finance), which are internally available annual financial documents.

Which research projects at MIT are funded by the Israeli military?

From the MIT ‘Brown Book’, we have collected a list of projects at MIT that are funded by the Ministry of Defense of Israel and aggregated them in this spreadsheet:

Since 2008, MIT has received millions of dollars in research funding from the Ministry of Defense of Israel.

Which departments have received or are currently receiving this funding?

Specific research projects at MIT with the Israeli military that we call upon MIT to end immediately and not renew:

Share information about the protest and our demands. Share photos/videos of organizers getting their message out. Express your support publicly, know and use your privilege.

Monitor social media accounts for suppression, police violence and outside agitation and attacks, which has occurred at other MIT protests.

02

Follow updates and publicize the protest and divestment campaign

03

Write to MIT to express your support for the divestment campaign.

sally.kornbluth@mit.edu; iaw@mit.edu; nelsonsm@mit.edu; cbarnhar@mit.edu; chancellor@mit.edu; glenshor@mit.edu;

zuber@mit.edu; egrimson@mit.edu; zurmanv@mit.edu; mnobles@mit.edu; office-

of-the-president@mit.edu; wespich@mit.edu; drandall@mit.edu; erindf@mit.edu; peko@mit.edu; sipser@math.mit.edu; mitogc@mit.edu; mdiv@mit.edu; tamschap@mit.edu

There’s been two resolutions passed by the student body to call upon MIT to divest from the Israeli military immediately:

1) Undergraduate Association (student body government) at MIT

2) Graduate Student Union at MIT

Beyond this, there’s many, many other official statements and publications that have been made by MIT Coalition for Palestine member organizations, we’ve linked a few here:

04

Learn more about the ongoing movement to end MIT’s involvement in it

Do most students at MIT want divestment from research that directly develops Israeli military weapons?

Yes.

Both the undergraduate student body and the graduate student body have passed resolutions (via democratic election) calling for an immediate divestment.

Undergraduate Association at MIT

The MIT Undergraduate Association (UA), which is the undergraduate student government at MIT, passed the following referendum calling for MIT to cut ties with the Israeli military, a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and standing in solidarity with pro-Palestine activists on campus on 3/23/2024 with a 63.7% margin. The turnout for the vote was 41.5% of the total undergraduate population.

“Whereas MIT maintains a special research relationship with the Israeli Defense Forces through the direct research funding it receives from the Ministry of Defense of Israel”

“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we, the MIT Undergraduate Association, join the international call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli military siege and blockade of the Gaza strip.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we, the MIT Undergraduate Association, recognize MIT’s institutional complicity in furthering violence against the Palestinian people through the Institute’s special ties with the Israeli military and call upon the MIT community to cut all research and financial ties with the Israeli military.”

Excepts from the passed resolution by the Undergraduate Association at MIT

Graduate Student Union at MIT

The MIT Graduate Students Union (GSU) adopted a ceasefire resolution on 4/19/2024 to resolve that:

• The MIT GSU joins the global call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli government’s military siege and blockade of the Gaza strip.
• MIT as an institution is complicit in furthering violence against the Palestinian people and call for the MIT community to take immediate steps toward cutting all research and financial ties with the Israeli military.
• The MIT GSU opposes all threats and intimidations of MIT community members engaging in political speech, defends the right to freedom of expression in the workplace, and condemns all occurrences of prejudice and defamation.

The resolution was adopted by means of referendum, with all members of the union in good standing given an opportunity to vote on the resolution online over the course of a week. The resolution was authored by a committee of 5 GSU members who were democratically appointed on March 14, 2024 during the March general membership meeting according to union bylaws by a vote of 64-2. It was then presented and sent to referendum on April 11, 2024 during the April general membership meeting by a vote of 117 - 11. The resolution was adopted with 70.5% of votes in favor of adopting the resolution (664 Yes, 278 No, and 38 Abstain).

“WHEREAS, since 2015 the Ministry of Defense of Israel has devoted over $11.5 million in research

funding for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to support the above military goals by

developing technologies such as autonomous robotic swarms, neural network compression, algorithms for pursuit-evasion strategies, underwater persistent monitoring, and magnetic wave detection;

WHEREAS, several such projects are ongoing or have been renewed in the last six months and are thus actively soliciting MIT graduate labor to further Israeli military objectives; WHEREAS, MIT community members have historically taken action in support of indigenous struggles during Apartheid South Africa and the Vietnam War, with graduate students campaigning for divestment and protesting against wartime military research;”

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we recognize MIT’s institutional complicity in furthering violence against the Palestinian people through the Institute’s special ties with the Israeli military and affirm the pressing moral call for the MIT community to take immediate steps toward cutting all research and financial ties with the Israeli military;”

Excepts from the passed resolution by the Graduate Student Union at MIT

MIT Staff for Palestine is an unofficial loose group of people employed by MIT (staff, researchers, and faculty). We formed in November, 2023, after authoring an open letter to President Kornbluth on our concerns regarding the administration’s treatment of student protestors. We have no leadership or official member lists.

We Are:

• a group to support to each other at MIT, to listen to and problem solve around issues arising at work related to silencing pro-Palestine positions
• a group to support the CAA and other pro-Palestinian student groups including but not limited to Reading Revolution, MIT Jews for Ceasefire, and Palestine@MIT.

MIT Staff for Palestine has authored multiple Op-Eds in The Tech in solidarity with student activists organizing to support justice for Palestine.

Do MIT Faculty + Staff support the Students Against Genocide Encampment at MIT? Yes.

“We affirm MIT student groups who demand that MIT protect Palestinian students and their allies from discrimination, defend their rights to free speech and free expression on campus, and provide a safe environment without exceptions. Such peaceful expression of moral and political concerns in academic settings is a part of a long tradition in which young people find their voice to participate in democracy, and their voices should not be chilled or silenced by threats of arrest or disciplinary proceedings.”

“We call on all faculty – whatever your political views – to stand up for students’, staff’s and faculty’s rights to free speech and political self-expression by making their presence and solidarity known and felt. “

“As the Alliance of Concerned Faculty at MIT we support and affirm our students’ right to peaceful political expression and support their rights to free speech. We thus express our support for the students currently staging a peaceful and multi-faith encampment on Kresge Lawn.”

Nothing in my view is more reprehensible than those habits of mind in the intellectual that induce avoidance, that characteristic turning away from a difficult and principled position which you know to be the right one, but which you decide not to take. You do not want to appear too political; you are afraid of seeming controversial; you need the approval of a boss or an authority figure; you want to keep a reputation for being balanced, objective, moderate; your hope is to be asked back, to consult, to be on a board or prestigious committee, and so to remain within the responsible mainstream; someday you hope to get an honorary degree, a big prize, perhaps even an ambassadorship. For an intellectual these habits are corrupting par excellence. If anything can denature, neutralize, and finally kill a passionate intellectual life it is the internalization of such habits."

-- Palestinian scholar, Edward Said