Dear MIT Community,
We want to reiterate our call for immediate divestment from the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
As Jewish MIT students, staff, and faculty, we find the involvement of the Israeli government — a government that is actively committing genocide and starving hundreds of thousands of children and adults — in our school’s research to be an abhorrent exploitation of “academic freedom” and a revolting abuse of MIT’s mission. What purpose do swarm weapons, created in the Aero/Astro department and paid for by Israel, serve if not for the targeting of Palestinians? How can this research be “for the betterment of humankind”?
The emergency created by the Israeli government’s actions is far greater than any temporary inconvenience of a protest. We hope that you join us in calling MIT leadership to do what it easily did, just days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: to immediately cut research ties and divest from a government committing historic injustice upon a people. MIT can, and must, do better.
MIT Jews for Ceasefire
May 6, 2024