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MIT Threatens to Place Protesters Involved in Encampment on ‘Interim Academic Suspension’

Pro-Palestinian protesters concerned in an encampment on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) got a deadline of Monday to “leave” the encampment.

The encampment, which was established at MIT on April 21, is considered one of a number of pro-Palestinian encampments that stay on college and school campuses across the nation, as a number of universities have began eradicating the encampments.

In a letter despatched to college students, MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles described the encampment as “in violation of MIT policies.” She stated college students who don’t depart by 2:30 p.m. can be positioned on “immediate interim academic suspension”:

We have incessantly communicated to you that the 24/7 encampment on Kresge Oval that started on Sunday, April 21, is in violation of MIT insurance policies. While MIT is dedicated to freedom of expression, we have now been clear that the encampment should finish. The leaders of the encampment group have met with Institute educational and administrative management many occasions, however an settlement has not been reached to finish the encampment. MIT has a accountability to maintain our group protected.

Ultimatums given to MIT college students to depart the anti-Israel encampment as we speak.

(Leave or be suspended) pic.twitter.com/shoPNLAEB9

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) May 6, 2024

Nobles added that college students have been “directed to leave the encampment by 2:30 p.m.” on Monday.

The letter served as a “written warning” for college kids who voluntarily left by the deadline, had “not been sanctioned” by MIT’s Committee on Discipline (COD), didn’t have “impending COD cases,” and had not served as a “leader or organizer” of the encampment.

“You must swipe your ID as you leave the encampment, and the written warning, together with the time stamp from your exit swipe showing you departed by 2:30 p.m., will be kept on file with MIT,” Nobles wrote.

Students who voluntarily left the encampment by the deadline and have impending instances by the COD or who had been sanctioned or served as a pacesetter or organizer of the encampment would “be referred to the COD.”

Those who didn’t voluntarily depart the encampment by the deadline and didn’t have impending instances in opposition to them by the COD or who had not been sanctioned would “be placed on an immediate interim academic suspension lasting at least through Institute commencement activities,” and would even be “referred to the COD.”

In response to the deadline, protesters started chanting, “We are the intifada” exterior of the pro-Palestinian encampment at MIT.

Students chanting “we are the intifada” exterior the anti-Israel encampment at MIT, after being instructed to depart by 2:30 PM or be suspended. pic.twitter.com/7nLBTda29S

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyDillon) May 6, 2024

Local highschool college students have been reported to have walked out of their colleges to attend a protest that was forming at MIT.

BREAKING: There is an enormous protest beginning at MIT. Even native highschool college students are strolling out of sophistication and heading in direction of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus. pic.twitter.com/YlmHdAM7og

— Stu (@thestustustudio) May 6, 2024

In response to the pro-Palestinian protesters who have been refusing to depart the encampment, regulation enforcement officers have been seen walking on campus.

Translated and subtitled at @MIT — calls to homicide Zionists and martyr oneself for the reason for destroying Israel.

I’m so heartbroken that there exists such unbridled hate on my campus. I’m so out of vitality 💔 pic.twitter.com/ujWAKe5h2v

— Talia Khan (@TaliaKhan_MIT) May 6, 2024

Video footage posted to X from contained in the encampment at MIT confirmed protesters chanting, “From water to water, Palestine is Arab,” “From water to water, Israel is destroyed,” and “From water to water, death to the Zionists.”

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