In a video statement announcing the suspension of the pro-Palestine student Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA) group this week, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said the group has every right to criticize the policies of the Israeli government, but not the right to stage a protest without the university’s permission.
“I want to be clear: suspending the CAA is not related to the content of their speech,” Ms. Kornbluth said in the video statement. “I fully support the right of everyone on our campus to express their views. However, we have clear, reasonable time, place, and manner policies for good reason.”
While CAA has protested at MIT before without permission, it is the first time they have been suspended for it. Ms. Kornbluth said the suspension will remain in place until MIT’s Committee on Discipline makes a final determination on the group’s fate.
Ms. Kornbluth also seemed to emphasize that she was not taking sides.
As part of the suspension, Ms. Kornbluth said the student group will not be allowed to use any MIT facilities, hold any further demonstrations, and will be banned from receiving any funding MIT usually provides for student activities.
CAA immediately expressed outrage at Ms. Kornbluth, accusing her and the MIT administration of interfering with its right to fight for what it called “Palestinian liberation.”
It also demanded the school “retract the threats against student organizers.”
The letter was endorsed by dozens of student organizations from other colleges, including at nearby Harvard College, Northeastern University, Boston University, Emerson College, Suffolk University, Tufts, Berklee, Cornell, Columbia University, Princeton University, Yale, and UCLA.
Other groups that signed the letter include Greater Boston Tenants Union, The Massachusetts Review, Mass Artists For Change, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, Muslim Counterpublics Lab, and Jesuit Society For Change.
An MIT faculty group called MIT Staff for Palestine also signed the CAA letter.
The controversy comes amid a Congressional investigation into anti-Semitism at nearby Harvard College.
On Friday, House Republicans delivered on their threat to the Ivy League school and served subpoenas to three top Harvard officials on Friday to turn over several internal documents and other correspondence.
“I will not tolerate delay and defiance of our investigation while Harvard’s Jewish students continue to endure the firestorm of antisemitism that has engulfed its campus,” Committee Chairwoman Virginia Fox (R-N.C.) wrote in a statement ahead of the subpoenas.
The move comes just six weeks after the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill over allegations they were condoning anti-Semitism on their campuses. Ms. Korbluth testified alongside Ms. Magill and Ms. Gay before Congress back in December.
All three said that “calls for the genocide of Jews” did not necessarily violate their universities’ codes of conduct.
Criticism from Jewish Students
In a change.org petition, a group of MIT students accused her of neglecting to protect Jewish students at MIT, saying she has not “fostered a safe & inclusive campus environment and has embarrassed the Institute in the eyes of the world.”“In the wake of the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust and one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern history, Jews and Israelis on campus desperately needed time and space to mourn. Instead, they were met immediately with victim blaming and callous epithets,” the group wrote.
The group also specifically criticized Ms. Kornbluth’s administration for not suspending CAA students “who repeatedly violated the administration’s guidelines and threats.”
“They have shown that actions against Jews at MIT do not have consequences,” the students wrote.
According to the petition, the head of MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) wrote in an email that he would protect any DUSP students involved in violating MIT’s rules today by protesting with the CAA.
In calling for her resignation, the students accused Ms. Kornbluth of “amplification of antisemitism through silence.”
In addition to making the distinction that CAA was not suspended over content but rather conduct, she also emphasized that the disciplinary action was intended to ensure student group’s comply with college policy.
“The point of these policies is to make sure that members of the MIT community can work, learn, and do their work on campus without disruption. We also need to keep the community safe.”
An uprising in already existing anti-Semitism on MIT and other U.S. college campuses was escalated by the Oct. 7, 2023, brutal attacks by the Palestinian group Hamas against civilians in Israel. Children, including infants, and entire families were slain, and there were several reports that women were gang raped by the terrorists.
Colleges became plagued overnight with students as well as faculty who sided with Palestine, attributing their pro-Hamas stance to claims that Israelis have long been occupying and controlling land in Gaza that belong to Palestinians.
Israel has also been criticized for unleashing military strikes on Gaza to eliminate Hamas in response to the surprise Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists.
Several ethnic and religious groups have also sided with Palestine. At MIT, groups who signed CAA’s demand letter include MIT Muslims For Justice, MIT Arab Student Organization, MIT Asian American Initiative, MIT Black Graduate Student Association, MIT Black Students Union, and MIT Globally Indigenous Students for Justice.
