#underwatersurveillance — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

#MIT Professor Cancels #Israeli Military Grant After Student Pressure

“This concession shows that student campaigns do have an influence,” one student said. "These ties cannot survive transparency."

by Akela Lacy
September 22 2025, 9:09 a.m.

"#ProPalestine student #activists across the country have struggled to get their universities to respond to pressure for divestment from Israel and its military–industrial complex.

"So when a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology withdrew from a grant from the Israeli military after hearing feedback from students protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza, it was especially welcome news.

" 'This is one of the only cases where we know that student activism and public pressure led directly to an Israeli tie being cut, let alone a collaboration with its genocidal military,' said Mila Halgren, a postdoctoral associate at MIT. (The university did not respond to a request for comment.)

"MIT has come under internal and public scrutiny for conducting research on #warfare technology sponsored by #Israel. In July, the United Nations condemned the school for conducting 'weapons and #surveillance research funded by the Israeli ministry of defense — the only foreign military financing research at the institute.'

"That research included projects on drone swarm control — technology which the Israeli military has used during its siege on #Gaza — pursuit algorithms, and #UnderwaterSurveillance.

"Markus Buehler, a professor in the civil engineering department, withdrew the grant earlier this summer shortly after a student pro-Palestine group publicized it on Instagram.

" 'This concession shows that student campaigns do have an influence,' Halgren said. 'It also shows that these ties cannot survive #transparency and #PublicAwareness. Student action is not meaningless; despite increased repression, it is more important than ever to resist #genocide.”

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/sO9UF

#ResistGenocide #IsraeliWarCrimes #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #Resistance