By National Lawyers Guild, September 20, 2024
The MIT Coalition For Palestine announces a major divestment win for its Scientists Against Genocide (SAGE) movement : MIT has ended the MISTI-Israel Lockheed Martin Fund. This is the first known shutdown of an American-Israeli weapons manufacturer partnership at a U.S. university since the war on Gaza has begun, and MIT has chosen to end this partnership despite renewing its other MISTI projects. The Fund had been a project by MIT International Science and Technology Initiative Israel (MISTI-Israel) to connect students and researchers at MIT to the global arms manufacturer’s Israeli offices.
Lockheed Martin has unquestionably profited from the genocide in Gaza, supplying the Israeli government with Hellfire missiles, attack aircraft, and heavy artillery directly used in destroying Palestinian lives, homes, and society, as well as enabling torture camps and a regime of apartheid. This win is a testament to the sustained pressure from activists, including MIT labor’s refusal to abet the apartheid state via contributing to its weapons research. NLG is proud to have supported and represented MIT SAGE via legal representation and legal observation, especially when they were under threat of police violence and unlawful arrests during the encampment of Apr-May 2024.
Israeli forces continue to escalate in their terror, and MIT maintains ongoing, direct research funding links to the Israeli military supply chain. MIT Coalition for Palestine will continue to fight and resist against the genocidal regime: the NLG will continue to support that fight. No science for apartheid, and free Palestine.
