The Coalition for Palestine continues regular protests as numerous arrests made
The Coalition alleges police brutality after five individuals arrested at Oct. 7 and Oct. 22 protests
In the fall of 2024, the Coalition for Palestine (C4P) has held weekly protests on Mondays in front of Lobby 7. Though these street-side protests themselves are smaller in scale compared to the spring, a number of arrests have been made without comment from the MIT administration in messages previously broadcasted to the wider Institute community.
Amidst a changing landscape of the Israel-Hamas War and administration regulation on the time and place of protest, the C4P remains adamant in its messaging of severing ties between the Institute and Israeli entities involved in the conflict.
Arrests of protesters on Oct. 7 and Oct. 22
The Coalition for Palestine (C4P) organized a rally on Oct. 7, marking exactly one year since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War: it was also intended to be the launching of their termed “MIT Arms Embargo” campaign focusing on dismantling ties between the Institute's research affiliations with weapons deployed in the conflict.
The rally followed a route from the Ragon Institute on Main Street to Stata Center on Vassar Street. According to MIT C4P member Aaliya Hussain ’25, this seemingly unusual route had a specific purpose: to highlight the “ties between the space [the protestors walked through] and the technology [developed next to those spaces].” Hussain is also an active member of MIT Divest, a student organization that has endorsed the MIT Undergraduate Association (UA) referendum to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and demand that MIT cut research ties with the Israeli military.
At the rally, tens of policemen from MIT Police and Cambridge Police arrested three protestors, one of whom was a MIT graduate student and two others not affiliated with MIT. According to the Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA), the police “used violence [sic] force,” physically dragging them to the street and piling “up on top of each person.”
Hussain directly witnessed these arrests and found the experience to be horrifying, confirming that there were acts of police brutality and abuse of force. “People were basically thrown onto the street, and multiple officers were putting down one person,” Hussain said. “It was genuinely traumatic to witness.”
The CAA asserts that these arrests targeted people of color, including the MIT graduate student, who is Black. Court proceedings are ongoing for the arrested.
More recently, MIT Police organized a protest on Tuesday, Oct. 22 calling for Professor Daniela Rus, a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and other principal investigators to reject “Israeli military [research] funding.” According to the CAA, Dr. Rus’ robotics research has received funding from Israel’s Ministry of Defense for its potential military drone applications. In response, protesters entered the CSAIL lab space on the third floor of the Gates Tower in Stata Center, picketing for 20 minutes and handing out flyers. MIT Police arrested two and several more were detained.
Recent developments in the Coalition
On Sept. 13, the MIT administration ended the MISTI-Israel Lockheed Martin Seed Fund, a program which according to the Institute, “have supported faculty collaborations and international experiences for students in various countries, including Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland.” The fund was one initiative that the C4P targeted as part of their divestment efforts in the 2023-2024 academic year.
The MIT Coalition for Palestine plans to continue their divestment campaign of pressuring MIT to cut ties with certain companies and end funding from Israel’s Ministry of Defense. These companies include Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense company, and Maersk, a global logistics company that ships cargo to Israel. Elbit Systems is a member of MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program (ILP), a membership program that provides companies with access to MIT’s resources. Maersk signed an agreement with the MIT Center for Transportation Logistics (CTL) in 2021; MIT CTL does research on supply chain logistics and collaborates with logistics companies. “Those certainly are ties that we’re going after,” Hussain said. “What makes it [MIT] very unique is that we have such direct ties to the actual weaponry that is being used in these attacks.”
Effects of new campus regulations on the Coalition
In the 2023-2024 academic year, the MIT administration laid out new policies for campus protests and demonstrations. Called “Guidelines for Free Expression at Campus Events, Vigils, Protests, and Demonstrations,” these new policies not only specified where demonstrations can take place, but also laid out rules in which demonstrations had to be registered at “least three business days in advance” with the administration. On Feb. 13, the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA) was temporarily suspended for violating the demonstration guidelines after holding a rally in Lobby 7 without a prior reservation. There have been claims of a permanent suspension, but they were not officially confirmed at the time of this writing.
These new changes were also reflected in the new 2023-2024 Committee on Discipline (COD) annual report: Institute Expectations was created as a new category for alleged policy violations. According to the report, there were 52 counts of violations under Institute Expectations in the 2023-2024 academic year. Disorderly conduct also had 52 counts.
Hussain believes that the MIT’s administration portrayal of the new campus regulations to be contradictory. “The narrative that the MIT administration has tried and honestly failed to maintain is that protest rules have always existed,” Hussain said. “That is what they claim.” In terms of the violations under Institute Expectations, Hussain criticized the disproportionate impact the COD proceedings had on students of color, saying that “out of the 52 people, 45 were students of color.” The demographic breakdown of the students was actually not disclosed within the report.
Hussain highlighted that the discipline of students in the MIT CAA dates back to 1986– MIT Police raided the shantytown encampment MIT CAA students built to protest MIT for not divesting from South Africa. She compared this event to the raid of the Palestine encampment on May 10.
Thoughts on the 2024 election and the Israel-Hamas war
In regards to the Coalition’s views on the 2024 election, Hussain described that people within the group have different views on the election and acknowledged that “electoral politics are complicated.” Although Hussain believes that the 2024 election is important, she said that the election is not a main topic of conversation in the Coalition because the group’s main focus is on the ongoing war in Palestine. “Frankly, do you have the bandwidth to care about an election happening in two to three weeks when in the immediate term you see children burning alive?” Hussain raised.
Hussain clarified that she does not dismiss the 2024 election’s importance. “I’m saying that there’s a genocide happening in Gaza right now, and I think that has to be factored into everything.”
Reflections on MIT as an institution
In regards to MIT’s role as an institution, Hussain expressed disappointment and frustration, stating that “MIT has failed morally on so many different grounds.” She focused on two main points: MIT’s direct ties with Israel and MIT’s mistreatment of students. Hussain condemned MIT for its use of force on students, citing the arrests of protesters outside the Stata Center parking garage on May 9. “There is no acknowledgement of the violence and racism. And that is disgusting beyond words,” Hussain said.
“MIT has lacked any sort of moral restraint on Palestine and also on its own grounds.”