Before-and-After Video Shows MIT Protest Camp Dismantled

Police made several arrests as they broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on Friday morning, May 10, local media reported.

This video from Spencer Rubin shows images of the camp on Thursday followed by shots of the same area, emptied of tents and protesters, on Friday.

In a statement Friday morning, the university’s president, Sally Kornbluth, said said they requested that police clear the area after protesters were given “four separate warnings” to leave.

“My responsibility is to the whole community: to make sure that the campus is physically safe and functioning for everyone, that our shared spaces and resources are available for everyone, and that everyone feels free to express their views and do the work they came here to do,” Kornbluth wrote. “The presence of the encampment increasingly made it impossible to meet all these obligations,” she said.

A coalition of students groups involved in the protest said roughly 200 police officers began raiding the camp at 4 am, and arrested at least 10 people. The coalition said it would continue to protest until MIT “cuts ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and ends its attacks on student organizers,” and called for people to rally outside a college building at 3pm Friday. Credit: Spencer Rubin via Storyful