Two significant US campus divestment victories were hard-won by students and community activists in San Francisco, California, and in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

On 19 April, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Graduate Student Union democratically adopted a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for the MIT community to cut all research and financial ties with the Israeli military.

According to the MIT Coalition for Palestine, along with BDS Boston, the Industrial Liaison Program of MIT officially cut its ties with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

After a sustained six-month campaign against the program, which included disrupting the liaison program’s conferences both in the US and in three countries in Asia, the coalition says that it sets the stage for future wins against Elbit and the Israeli military complex in the US and around the world.

Richard Solomon, an MIT doctoral student in political science and a member of the MIT coalition for Palestine, tells The Electronic Intifada Podcast that though the campaign against Israel’s technological relationship with MIT has been active for some time, the student and the community has accelerated their mobilization strategies.

“We don’t just send polite emails,” Solomon says. ….more