MIT divests from Israeli arms firm funded program
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The divestment marks the first American-Israeli arms manufacturer partnership to end at an American university since "Israel" began its ongoing genocide in Gaza on October 7.
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Pro-Palestian graduates leave an outdoor commencement at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 30, 2024. (AP)
The MISTI-"Israel" Lockheed Martin fund has been shut down after continuous pressure from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) staff and faculty, the MIT Coalition for Palestine announced on Friday, marking a major divestment win for the university's Scientists Against Genocide (SAGE) movement.
"Under pressure from students and scientists of conscience at this Institute, the MIT administration has discontinued MISTI-Israel's Lockheed Martin Seed Fund and will not renew its contract," the organization said in a statement.
"This was a major target of our divestment action. The program ends after months of protest against it last fall, including letter deliveries, sit-ins, and public information campaigns," it highlighted.
The Lockheed Martin Seed Fund was a program established in 2019, managed by the MIT International Science and Technology Initiative Israel (MISTI-"Israel") to connect students and researchers to Israeli offices at Lockheed Martin, a weapons manufacturer firm.
The divestment marks the first American-Israeli arms manufacturer partnership to end at an American university since the genocide began on October 7. Additionally, the fund was removed from the MISTI-"Israel" website between December 2023 and February 2024.
The arms company has supplied the occupation with several billion dollars of weapons to be used during its ongoing genocide in Gaza, including Hellfire missiles, attack aircraft, and heavy artillery. These munitions have been used within the past 11 months to target schools, universities, hospitals, religious sites, and crucial infrastructure, as "Israel" killed over 41,000 Palestinians.
The MIT Coalition for Palestine emphasized that Lockheed also enabled its alumnus, Benjamin Netanyahu, to extend the occupation's genocidal acts to the West Bank and al-Quds, as well as Israeli concentration camps.
📍Lobby 7 Steps, MIT
— Francesca Riccio-Ackerman (@still_francesca) September 14, 2024
Footage from the MIT Coalition for Palestine yesterday announcing the end of the MIT-Israel Lockheed Martin Seed Fund.
Full statements from the organizers and supporters is available at https://t.co/WXEP4RD3AS
Video by @BostonPSL 🚨 pic.twitter.com/YTpKcIVqVK
MIT organization refuses complicity in genocide
The MIT Coalition for Palestine referred to the UK's recent suspension of 30 weapons licenses, asserting there are many steps to implement to order a full arms embargo on the regime. The organization also shed light on how boycotts, divestments, and sanctions resulted in the end of South Africa's apartheid regime in the 1990s.
"A similar campaign is now required of us if we want to see an end to the Israeli apartheid regime in our lifetime and the formation of a free, democratic Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea," the statement read.
"Today we are gathered once again as a united MIT community, speaking in its majority voice, as we have in referendum after referendum, from the sit-ins in Lobby 7 to the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment this spring, to say that we are FED UP and DONE with aiding and abetting the apartheid state."
The movement added that despite this major step in divestment, the institution's laboratories continue to conduct direct research funding links to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), while the administration maintains its partnerships with Elbit Systems and Maersk.
They denounced these ties and criticized MIT for violating its "own ethical funding criteria, research ethics, and health and safety policies."
"They are shameful and criminal and signal in clear and offensive terms that the Institute does not care about the human life and dignity of our Palestinian colleagues here at MIT and abroad. We say no. No science for apartheid and free Palestine," the statement concluded.
Pro-Palestine protests prompt closure of Israeli arms firm's US office
Last month, a US branch of "Israel's" largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, announced the termination of its office lease in Cambridge, Massachusetts following months of demonstrations led by Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Boston.
A subsidiary of the Israeli-based company, KMC Systems, had moved into a building at 130 Bishop Allen Drive in December 2021, where the lease was expected to end next year.
The BDS organization described the end of Elbit's lease as "a testament to our collective power,” attributing “varied community efforts” for the disruption of Elbit and its landlord, Intercontinental Management Corp.'s operations and “forcing the early termination of the lease.”
The movement has pledged to keep fighting to “prevent Elbit from moving to another nearby location," as well as attempt to “sever Elbit’s ties with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other actors in the Boston area.”
“We will not consider ourselves victorious until Elbit Systems is dismantled and until Palestine is liberated,” BDS Boston asserted.
