A Letter to President Kornbluth from MIT Jews for Ceasefire

President Kornbluth and MIT administration,

We, MIT Jews for Ceasefire, are writing to you with great urgency and deep concern about the false narratives circulating on campus and beyond. We are a group of Jews and Israelis that stand in steadfast disagreement with the group that claims to represent us all: the MIT Israel Alliance (MITIA). It is imperative that we are included in the conversation about antisemitism, the Jewish experience, and Jewish safety on campus.

Our Values

We are anti-colonialist, antiracist, anti-authoritarian, anti-white supremacist. There is no safety under occupation and apartheid. We stand against Islamophobia, antisemitism, and anti-Arab racism. We stand for ceasefire. We stand for a free Palestine, a world where Palestinians and Israelis can live in safety and sovereignty with full political, civil, and human rights. We know that our safety as Jews will not come at the expense of Palestinians’ safety. Ceasefire means safety for Jews and Palestinians, as Jewish students we don’t compromise one for the other.

Our Beliefs

We stand in solidarity with Palestine. We do not believe that criticizing Israel’s ongoing genocide is antisemitism. We do not believe that supporting Palestinians means wishing for the destruction of Israelis. We disavow the ahistorical narrative pushed by MITIA. We will not let our grief from the October 7th attack be weaponized to justify the killing 11,000+ civilians, including thousands of children. We say: stop the genocide. Not in our name.

Our experiences on November 9

On the day of the protest, we gathered peacefully in support of a liberated Palestine to collectively ask the administration to divest from complicit corporations and research: no science for genocide. As we sat holding signs, a group that we now understand to be MITIA approached us, hovered over us, stepped on us, pushed us, ripped signs from our hands, threw flyers of violent imagery onto us. They verbally harrassed us, yelled that we would be raped, told us G_d made a mistake by having us born a Jew, called us antisemitic, called us self-hating Jews, called us Hamas.

MITIA is spinning a false narrative

MITIA is now attempting to spin the protest to suit their own narrative—that of uninformed or hateful supporters of Palestine against peace-seeking Jews. We are alarmed and sickened by the lies pushed to MIT mailing lists, Twitter, and national television. MITIA speaks as if they stand for all Jews and Israelis at MIT but we are here together to call out this blatant lie. They do not represent us, they do not speak for us. As your November 13 letter to MITIA states, “many false rumors” are circulating. We are ready to publish footage of the protest to corroborate what we wrote above—that the aggression was instigated by MITIA and was one-sided in nature. We hope that this administration is able to hold strong to the truth of November 9 and not succumb to the political pressures from inaccurate media coverage and behind-the-scenes lobbying.

Conversations moving forward

We are eager to engage in future conversations about the definition of antisemitism. We understand that MITIA has requested the adoption of the IHRA definition on campus. This definition would equate the criticism of Israeli apartheid and advocacy for Palestinian rights with hateful acts against Jews. This absolutely must not stand. Such a view of antisemitism cheapens the term when used to describe other, very real and dangerous instances of discrimination. By using verbal and physical threats and propagating lies, MITIA has repeatedly acted against our Jewish values. We look forward to being a part of ongoing conversations about decisions related to Jews, Jewish safety, and antisemitism on campus.

MIT Jews for Ceasefire
November 14, 2023