MIT says cutting research ties with Israeli military would violate academic freedom [Video]

Senior leaders at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and pro-Palestinian student protesters who have established an encampment on the school’s Cambridge campus appear to have reached an impasse on negotiations to resolve the protest, with the university saying students’ chief demand — that it no longer accept funding from the Israeli military for research — violates “academic freedom.”

A spokesperson for MIT told MassLive on Thursday that “efforts to resolve the situation continue” but “students involved in the protest have rejected any avenues for ending the encampment other than MIT agreeing to their original demand.”

But, Francesca Riccio-Ackerman, an MIT PhD student who is aiding student organizers with the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment at MIT, or SAGE, said MIT should “act decisively and quickly when it sees moral clarity.”

Riccio-Ackerman and other student activists have likened MIT’s financial ties to the Israeli military to its partnership with the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow.

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