A pair of opposing protests took place Friday on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, amid continued turmoil over the ongoing war in Gaza.
A rally in support of Israeli and Jewish MIT students was set up across the street from an anti-war encampment that's been up for over a week, and which the university's president has sought to close down, though without bringing in police in shows of force seen at campuses across the country.
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The rallies Friday afternoon ended with no arrests made. Cambridge police shut about a block of Massachusetts Avenue, between Vassar and Amherst streets, for the protests, then reopened it several hours later.
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"We are making every appropriate preparation for these rallies, with strong support from local police," MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a statement ahead of the rallies that asked all members of the university's community to "join us in doing everything possible to keep the peace."
Two groups of dozens of people could be seen across Massachusetts Avenue from each other, with police keeping them separate with barricades.
People going to the pro-Israel rally across from the pro-Palestinian encampment said they were concerned community members affiliated with the Israeli American Council and other Jewish community groups who want to show support for Jewish students at MIT because of alleged harassment and intimidation they are experiencing.
"This is a support rally," said Lital Carmel, of the Israeli American Council. "We are not here to incite, we are not here to fight, our message is for the Jewish students and the encampment is the reason that Jewish students don’t feel safe, it’s the reason they can’t move freely around campus, so where else would we put it?"
Carmel said she want to see the encampment dismantled.
An MIT graduate student and spokesman for the encampment, who gave his name only as Mohamed, said the group had no plans to leave until their demands that the university divest from Israel are met.
"We are all part of coalition for Palestine, where people who are fighting against MITs ties to the genocide," he said.
There have been campus protests across the Boston area, and across the country, as students and their supporters have pushed universities to divest from Israel over the ongoing war in Gaza. Opponents have said the protests discriminate against Israel, which has been reeling from Oct. 7 attack from Hamas, the terrorist group that administers Gaza.
Photos: Pro-Palestinian demonstrations on US college campuses
It's unclear if MIT has plans to remove the encampment, but Kornbluth said in a video statement earlier this week that they have been a clear violation of school rules from the start and that they need to come down "soon."
Meanwhile, at Tufts University in Medford, a protest encampment was taken down Friday night. School administrators had previously asked students to end the encampment peacefully ahead of the upcoming commencement.
Gov. Maura Healey voiced her support Friday for how police were deployed to clear recent encampments at Northeastern University and Emerson College.
Healey, asked during a radio interview whether she was comfortable with how police were used at the two colleges, offered a one-word reply, "yes." The answer drew jeers from some people in the audience for the live radio broadcast from UMass Boston.
The governor did not delve into any specific details about the protests on GBH's Boston Public Radio, though the overnight police raid at Emerson last week has drawn scrutiny over some violent clashes between students and law enforcement.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has said she made the decision with Police Commissioner Michael Cox to clear the public alleyway at Emerson, a move that resulted in more than 100 arrests, according to The Boston Globe.
Healey was pressed to weigh in on the war in Gaza, as well as contentious protests in which students are seeking to cut university ties to Israel, during her regular "Ask the Governor" segment Friday afternoon.
"Anyone with a heart sees the grief, sees the agony, sees the devastation and feels for those who have been killed in Gaza, those who have been killed in Israel," Healey said. "It is incredibly agonizing and upsetting. It's also the case that we as a country, we as a people, and as a community, and I as your governor am committed -- as I was as head of the civil rights division and your attorney general -- to fighting antisemitism, to fighting Islamophobia, to fighting racism, hatred, bigotry in all forms."
Healey's comments came after an audience member claimed she had a question about child care and education, but then asked the governor why she was "protecting the funding of genocide over the wellbeing of students in the commonwealth." Radio host Jim Braude scolded the woman for lying to GBH staff about the nature of her question, and Healey initially responded by discussing her administration's investment in child care, including her push for universal preschool.
Healey, later pressed by Braude to comment on the college protests and the situation in Gaza, sought to draw a distinction between protests and violence.
"We have a right to protest in this country, including on college campuses. It is also the case that there is a difference between protest and violence, and threats of violence and disruption of students' access to safe education," the governor said. "It's important that we engage in a civil way and debate and have discourse and discussion in this country about policies -- that's really important, that's who we are as Americans."
Healey added, "It's also the case that some of what we are witnessing does not represent that, does not reflect that."
Healey spoke about praying for peace, as well as for a "greater understanding and greater dialogue."
She expressed her support for a ceasefire when asked whether President Joe Biden should have put conditions on funding military equipment for Israel. Hamas has rejected multiple ceasefire proposals from Israel, which is seeking the return of hostages still in Gaza.
"I think the president has been clear on calling for a ceasefire -- something that I support," Healey said. "I think it's also clear that we should continue to support Israel with that funding."
Information from the State House News Service was used in this report.
