MIT admitted that the reason it failed to follow through on threats to suspend students who participated in an unauthorized anti-Israel protest was because the school feared the agitators could be deported.
Institute president Sally Kornbluth acknowledged the elite university’s position in a statement following a protest that threatened Jewish and Israeli students.
The demonstration took place on Thursday in ‘Lobby 7’, the entrance to MIT. University regulations specifically prohibit demonstrations taking place in locations with heavy campus traffic.
A group called the Committee Against Apartheid organized the protest, which started at 8am.
When they heard what was happening, a group of Jewish and Israeli students showed up to organize a counter-protest.
The statement from Kornbluth — who has been president of the university since January — said that after the clash between protesters broke out, “we had serious concerns that this could lead to violence.”
MIT students staged an unsanctioned anti-Israel protest at the university’s main entrance on Thursday
“After exhausting all other options to de-escalate the situation, we informed all protesters that they must leave the lobby within a certain time or they would be suspended,” she continued.
“Many chose to leave and I appreciate their cooperation. Some don’t. Members of my team are in dialogue with students all day long.
‘Because we later heard serious concerns about collateral consequences for the students, such as visa problems, we decided by way of summary judgment that the students who remained after the deadline will be suspended from non-academic campus activities. The students will remain enrolled at MIT and will be able to take academic classes and labs.”
The semi-suspension, Kornbluth said, would be referred to an ad hoc complaint response team for a final ruling on the situation.
As is the case with many prestigious American institutions of higher education, a significant portion of MIT’s student population is made up of international students.
In the weeks since the outbreak of the war, sparked by Palestinian terrorists’ barbaric attack on innocent Israeli civilians, there has been widespread speculation that many of the students spearheading the anti-Israel protests unfolding on American college campuses are not American are citizens.
According to HaaretzKornbluth’s statement marks the first time an American university has acknowledged that many of the main organizers of the protests are not American.
Last week, anti-Israel groups organized demonstrations on campuses across the country under the slogan “Shut it down for Palestine.”
In response to the protest and ongoing protests of a similar nature on MIT’s campus, a group called ‘The MIT Israel Alliance and its Supporters’ released a statement claiming that the Committee Against Apartheid has repeatedly harassed MIT students and staff because they are Jewish.
“All this has taken place without a clear response from the government.”
“Every day, the MIT administrator’s silence makes Jewish and Israeli students feel unsafe at MIT,” it said.
A statement from MIT President Sally Kornbluth – who has been in her current post for less than a year – said the students who protested in flagrant violation of university policy and after the administration ordered them to quit under threat of suspension would not actually be deleted. because this could lead to their deportation
Jewish students were told Thursday that they could not enter MIT through the main lobby due to concerns about their physical safety
In the weeks since the outbreak of the war, sparked by Palestinian terrorists’ barbaric attack on innocent Israeli civilians, there has been widespread speculation that many of the students spearheading the anti-Israel protests unfolding on American college campuses have no are American citizens.
The group said Jewish students were told Thursday that they could not enter MIT through the main lobby due to concerns about their physical safety.
The statement further said that the Jewish and Israeli counter-protesters left the protest site as soon as the government warned of suspensions.
In addition, a widely shared video from last week shows a student interrupting a math class at MIT to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The student then waves a Palestinian flag and encourages students to join him as he chants, “Free, free Palestine.”
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, 57, shared the video and lambasted MIT for a “failure of leadership.”
The student stood up to interrupt the math teacher – who politely asked if the disruption could wait until he had finished explaining a math problem, and said, “Can I just finish this line?”
When the teacher finished – the student protester said ‘as you witness an ongoing genocide of Gaza in the silence of MIT – I join hundreds of students walking out of class across the city,
“We stand up for the liberation of Palestine against the active genocide perpetuated by MIT, Israel and the United States.”
The student then grabbed a Palestinian flag and joined his fellow demonstrators in chanting “free, free Palestine.”
At Columbia University — the site of some of the most virulently anti-Semitic protests to take place since Oct. 7 — the school announced Friday that it is suspending Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace — two extremely anti-Israel organizations.
The groups will be suspended for at least the remainder of the fall semester after violating multiple school rules and regulations with their unsanctioned protests.