Jessica Costescu writes for the Washington Free Beacon about another elite university bowing to anti-Israel agitators.
In the run-up to an annual Israeli Independence Day celebration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, university president Sally Kornbluth assured student organizers that an unauthorized anti-Israel encampment—located in the same area where the Jewish students planned to hold their event—would be cleared in time. It wasn’t, prompting school officials to walk back their promise and press the Jewish students to reschedule or relocate the event, messages obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.
On April 24, Kornbluth privately told student leaders of the MIT Israel Alliance, Talia Khan and Eitan Moore, that the encampment would be removed within four days, Khan and Moore said. The MIT Israel Alliance had reserved the same campus lawn occupied by the unauthorized protesters, Kresge Oval, for its May 7 Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration.
“President Kornbluth assured us in private communications that the encampment would be removed in time for our Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration,” Khan and Moore wrote in a Monday letter to MIT administrators.
But Kornbluth went on to push back her deadline to clear the encampment—first to May 1 and then to May 3, according to Khan and Moore. Then, on May 5, MIT Office of the President chief of staff Aaron Weinberger told the group that the school would not be able to “bring the encampment to an end … in time for the event on Tuesday afternoon.” He asked the students to move the celebration.
“We can offer two options: May 7 on Hockfield Court or May 14 on Kresge oval, as originally requested,” Weinberger wrote in an email, which was obtained by the Free Beacon. “Either way, we will work with you to ensure you have the support you need for a successful event.”
