MIT suspends student and bans magazine over article against genocide in Gaza

On November 9, 2024By Pranco

Last Friday, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) issued an immediate “interim” suspension of graduate student Prahlad Iyengar for writing an article entitled “On Pacifism” in an MIT student magazine, written revolution, to oppose Israel’s genocide against the people of Gaza. The publication itself has been banned from campus.

Graduates protesting the genocide in Gaza leave an outdoor rally at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday, May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)

Zionist groups and the MIT government have falsely claimed that the article incites violence and have attempted to portray Iyengar as a terrorist. The article, which appeared in the fifth edition of the magazine, which is a publication recognized by the American Sociological Association, does nothing of the sort evident from the text of the article itself, which is academic in nature.

The Socialist World Website opposes this blatant attack on freedom of expression and academic freedom and calls on workers, students and youth to demand the immediate withdrawal of all administrative measures against Iyengar.

As Iyengar wrote in a statement opposing the ban: “The government has also banned it Written revolution outright, which means that students who distribute or read this publication on campus may face discipline.” Some students who read the magazine were approached by the police. According to a recording of the call to the police, the intention was to put an end to the distribution of ‘banned pamphlets’. Students face Orwellian disciplinary action for distributing or merely reading the article on campus.

The suspension and ban represent an escalation of the bipartisan campaign led by the Biden administration and the Democratic Party against campus opposition to the genocide in Gaza. It comes after more than 186,000 people in Gaza were massacred by Israel, according to an estimate The Lancet from July. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that everyone in northern Gaza is “at immediate risk of death”, while a vast and unprecedented amount of photographic and video evidence is available on social media, both of the victims and the murderers themselves, documenting the genocide. , which can rightly be described as the first live-streamed genocide in history.

Iyengar, a second-year electrical engineering Ph.D. student, was summarily banned from campus under the false justification that he posed an immediate risk of violence, with the government falsely claiming that his article supported “terrorism.” This was done solely based on anonymous accusations of claims by Zionist students that statements in the article “could be interpreted as a call for more violent or destructive forms of protest at MIT.” The rule for temporarily banning students is apparently only aimed at those who are actually at risk of violence, such as suspects of rape, murder or assault. This is clearly not the case.

Essentially no evidence has been presented, apart from a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine poster used as an illustration in Iyengar’s article. The government falsely used this to claim that the article supported terrorism. The ban opens up a veritable Pandora’s box of opportunities for censorship, meaning that all types of media, from textbooks and dictionaries depicting real or alleged ‘terrorist’ organizations to documentaries and non-fiction books and even news articles in the mainstream press, would be banned can be. .

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In a strong statement denouncing the available ban hereIyengar writes:

These extraordinary actions should concern everyone on campus. My article, which I encourage everyone to read at writerrevolution.com, attempts to provide a historical overview of the types of tactics used by protest movements throughout history, from the civil rights movement to the struggle against South African Apartheid here on the MIT campus. The article examines academic author Ward Churchill’s famous essay, ‘Pacifism as Pathology’, and responds to those who embrace pacifism as an end in itself, which intellectually undermines Palestinian right under Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions to return to fight against the oppression they face.

Iyengar points out that such topics are already discussed in MIT’s History Department, as well as in the campus student newspaper, and that they are the subject of legitimate debate, and that if one were to apply the same standards for banning ‘terrorism’, this could pose a major threat. used against anyone accused by Israel, including members of the UN, Palestinian poets and academics, and others.

MIT has made other attacks on academic freedom, such as preventing linguistics professor Michel DeGraff from teaching a course on the language surrounding the genocide in Gaza. DeGraff received letters of reprimand and a pay freeze in response to his request to teach this class.

The treatment of anti-genocide protesters contrasts with MIT’s treatment of Zionist students, which exposes a double standard. Iyengar, who was previously evicted from student housing for sending an email about a non-violent protest, told the WSWS that he has filed harassment reports against some Zionist students and employees, who have defamed him on the social media website a “school shooter” and falsely claimed to be a member of the PFLP, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the US government. Nothing came of these reports.

Zionists from MIT are also involved violent attacks on students for which they have suffered no consequences legally, academically or otherwise. This follows a similar trend on other campuses, such as Columbia University and universities in Canada.

The ban on Iyengar was carried out without any due process. As he explained to the WSWS, “They banned me from campus without hearing my side of the story, without even hearing my defense.”

The campaign against Iyengar on campus is led by Dean of Student Life David Randall, who also serves on the board of MIT’s Hillel organization, which plays a leading role in the witch hunt of anti-genocide activists. Hillel International’s own website accepts Israel’s reactionary definition of “anti-Semitism” and includes those who politically oppose Zionism.

There are also extensive commercial connections between MIT and the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the former of which has developed much of the drone technology used by the latter. Israeli military company Elbit Systems is part of MIT’s industrial interconnection system, and several professors take money from the Defense Department.

MIT has hypocritically said that cutting research ties with the Israeli military would “violate academic freedom.”

The attack on Iyengar is clearly a political fabrication led by powerful political forces, including Zionist organizations and the Democratic Party, which controls the government, with Randall even admitting that he had not read the article carefully.

The action, in addition to violating Iyengar’s right to freedom of expression and the First Amendment rights of all MIT students and faculty, effectively denied Iyengar access to his laboratory, barred him from participating in courses and could prevent them from attending the final exams. exams that could jeopardize his academic career.

In his statement, Iyengar pointed to the broader context in which this takes place, noting:

Across the country, university administrations are systematically attempting to suppress the freedom of expression of those who oppose the genocide in Gaza. Cornell attempted to revoke a graduate student’s visa for participating in a protest. Students at the University of California are being kicked out of student housing and made homeless by disciplinary action for protest activities.

He also pointed to the dismissal of Dr. Maura Finkelstein for social media posts she made against the genocide in Gaza asking:

Do we want colleges and universities to be places for free and open discussion, or are we going to allow MIT’s administration to essentially accuse its own students of “terrorism” and ban student-run publications for articles that attempt to thoughtfully address the burning issues to tackle terrorism? the day? Now more than ever, we cannot take our basic democratic rights for granted.

The genocide is getting worse every day. In northern Gaza, the Jabalia refugee camp has faced unimaginable horrors under a total siege and blackout by the Israeli military occupation. The World Health Organization said the Sheikh Radwan health center, intended for the distribution of the vital polio vaccine, was bombed by the Israeli army during a “humanitarian pause.” In Lebanon, millions of people have been displaced, while entire villages, several thousand years old, are being completely wiped out by the genocidal Israeli regime that wants to erase Arab history.

It also takes place just a few months before Donald Trump’s inauguration. Trump has vowed to be a “dictator on day one” after previously attempting to overturn the results of the January 6, 2021 presidential election with a violent coup. He has pledged to use the army against domestic opposition and has said Israel must “solve the problem” regarding Palestine, echoing Hitler’s language regarding his “final solution” to the “Jewish problem.” Iyengar makes this point in the letter’s conclusion:

And here at home, the engine of these global atrocities, Donald Trump has threatened to establish a dictatorship and says he wants to put down the protests with violence. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has only continued to support American complicity in genocide, promising to use her “law and order” record to criminalize protesters. In the midst of this crisis, MIT’s actions only weaken our collective ability to confront threats to humanity, regardless of their source.

I therefore make the following appeal to all MIT students, staff, and faculty of conscience: do not let the administration monitor our speeches or censor student-run publications. This isn’t just about me, this is about the democratic principles involved. Don’t let MIT limit the boundaries of thought on this campus by limiting our ability to engage in the critique that is essential to movement building. We demand that the government drop its censorship on the Written Revolution and allow me to return to campus to continue my academic and research work.