JVP Academic Council Condemns MIT’s Punishment of its Class President’s Courageous Speech

6 June 2025

President Sally Kornbluth, MIT
Chancellor Melissa Nobles, MIT
Chair Mark P. Gorenberg, MIT Corporation

cc: Committee A of the American Association of University Professors

Dear President Kornbluth, Chancellor Nobles, and Corporation Chair Gorenberg,

The Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) commends MIT Class of 2025 President Megha Vemuri’s courageous speech in support of Palestinian liberation. Ms. Vemuri used her platform to do exactly what must always be done at a university: tell the truth—in this case, the urgent truth about (i) the continuing Israeli genocide in Gaza and (ii) the complicity in the genocide of MIT’s trustees and administration via MIT’s research ties with the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMoD) and (iii) the MIT administration’s suppression of speech in support of Palestine which falls under the rubric of both freedom of speech and assembly protected by the constitution.

Following Ms. Vemuri’s speech, President Kornbluth declared that “at MIT, we respect freedom of expression.” Yet the very next day, MIT administrators barred Ms. Vemuri from attending her own graduation ceremony, thus punishing her for her speech supporting Palestine and exposing the MIT administration’s complicit support for Israel’s ongoing genocide. Banning students from their own graduation ceremony because of acts of peaceful dissent and truth-telling is inimical to the educational mission of a university and the constitutional freedoms they are bound to protect.

Since criticizing the State of Israel for conducting genocide is in no sense an attack on Jews or Judaism, the punishment imposed on Ms. Vemuri — ostensibly in support of Jews — fails to fight antisemitism and makes no contribution to ensuring Jewish safety. Only if the State of Israel’s actions represented the views and interests of all Jewish people might that equation be true. As it is, the State does not represent the entirety of the Jewish people nor the most important principles of Jewish ethics. Indeed, the administration’s actions are antithetical to, even an attack upon, our Jewish values, namely, standing against injustice and oppression in all cases and for all people.

Unfortunately, the MIT administration’s actions in support of the Israeli state and its ongoing genocide are anything but unusual in U.S. higher education today. MIT’s actions, to the contrary, constitute but one more case of rampant intellectual and moral failure by higher education administrators during this time of genocide in Gaza and emergent authoritarianism in the U.S.

In contrast with such failures, Ms. Vemuri did precisely what must be done at this moment: she centered Palestine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza in the service of justice — an action that should become a model for the conduct of higher education leaders around the world.

Sincerely,

The Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace.

JVP is a national, grassroots organization working towards Palestinian freedom and Judaism beyond Zionism. With roughly 750,000 members, supporters, and participants in the last year, JVP is the largest such organization in the world. The Academic Council is a network of scholars within JVP with a shared commitment to JVP’s core values.

thr77.com