BOSTON (AP) — Police early Friday have begun dismantling a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
People were being detained and video showed police roaming through the encampment. Organizers said only about 10 people were inside the camp, but a crowd outside the camp began gathering and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans.
Tensions have ratcheted up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the United States and increasingly in Europe. Some colleges cracked down immediately, while others have tolerated the demonstrations. Some have begun to lose patience and call in the police over concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety.
The move at MIT comes several days after police first attempted to clear the encampment only to see protesters storm past barriers and restore the encampment, which includes about a dozen tents in the heart of the campus in Cambridge.
Before removing the encampment, MIT had also started suspending dozens of students involved in the encampment, meaning they wouldn’t be able to take part in academic activities nor commencement.
Protesters insisted the move would not stop them from demanding that MIT end all ties to the Israeli military.
“This is only going to make us stronger. They can’t arrest the movement,” Quinn Perian, an undergraduate student at MIT and organizer for MIT Jews for Ceasefire, said. “We are going to continue and won’t back down until MIT agrees to cut ties with the Israeli military. MIT would rather arrest and suspend some students than they would end their complicity with the genocide going in Gaza.”