The Intifada Revolution at MIT

During a recent protest for Palestine at MIT, hundreds of students yelled, “One solution: Intifada Revolution,” a chant that calls for the destruction of Israel. Liyam Chitayat, a 19-year-old Israeli MIT Ph.D. student, stood by, watching in horror.

“I was deeply scared for my safety,” Liyam said. “I almost never walk alone anymore on campus, and neither do my Israeli friends. We have posters across campus featuring blatantly false information. We were blamed for the bombing of the hospital, and nasty emails were made public, while private ones were sent to us.”

Liyam, who is studying computational biology, received the prestigious Baruch Zinger Scholarship, named after an Israeli professor murdered by terrorists in the Intifada in 2001. A former IDF soldier, Liyam lost friends in terror attacks last year, and some of her friends survived the Kibbutz Be'eri, the site of the October 7 massacre.

“They have been affected in obvious ways,” she said. “They had their neighbors, their friends, and their family kidnapped, raped, and beheaded. The emotional trauma is an entirely different thing. The magnitude of it is incomprehensible. We have never experienced such events in modern history.”

Additionally, Liyam estimates that 90% of her friends in Israel have been enlisted to serve in the IDF.

“The situation we have right now on campuses is already full speed escalating into calls for murder of Jews, things that really resemble Nazi Germany.”

“As someone who formerly served in the IDF and is in this position, there is something really terrifying about how we are dehumanized,” she said. “My social media feed has been blowing up with people saying, ‘Keep the world clean,” and there is a Star of David in the trash bin. The situation we have right now on campuses is already full speed escalating into calls for murder of Jews, things that really resemble Nazi Germany.”

The MIT protest came after the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid released a statement on October 8 – one day after the massacre – which said, they "hold the Israeli regime responsible for all unfolding violence." It also went on to say, “We unequivocally denounce the Israeli occupation, its racist apartheid system, and its military rule. Colonization is inherently violent, aimed at erasing and replacing indigenous peoples. We affirm the right of all occupied peoples to resist oppression and colonization.”

“I am not sure what it is, but there is some sort of desensitization among my generation,” said Liyam. “These 20-year-olds have been living a very comfortable life, to say the least, and can study in an Ivy League university and are participating in a philosophical moral debate about the lives of friends and people I know and love. For them, it’s just philosophical discourse. They seem to disconnect it from the reality of the degree in which these terrorist attacks were inhumane and the magnitude and methods in which they were carried out. I’m very confused as to what leads these people in my community here to think that is a reasonable reaction.”

MIT’s Response to the Protest

On October 10, MIT President Sally Kornbluth released a video statement for the students there. In it, she said, “The brutality perpetrated on innocent civilians in Israel by terrorists from Hamas is horrifying … we are bracing for a prolonged conflict that will also gravely harm or kill many innocent Palestinians in Gaza.”

She continued, “In letters and conversations, a number of students have told me that because of their Jewish faith, or their ties to Israel, they feel unsafe on our campus, and I’m also aware of Palestinian students who fear being targeted. That should trouble every one of us deeply. MIT must continue to be a place where ‘we cherish free expression, debate and dialogue in pursuit of truth.’ But antisemitism and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred are corrosive, and they’re poisonous to our community.”

Pro-Israel rally at MIT

“We know that security on campus was increased, and they are taking the threats to safety of Jews and Israelis very seriously,” said Liyam. “Despite the increase of safety on campus, I still don’t feel safe.”

The student is considering going back to Israel, but she is torn.

“The debate for me long term is whether I have it in me to persist with these [pro-Hamas] calls around me,” she said. “I also understand how much our visibility is important.”

Liyam and her friends held pro-Israel rallies following the attacks, which was in stark contrast to the pro-Palestinian protests.

“Ours were focused on dealing with pain together,” she said. “They were focused on honoring the lives of those who have been slaughtered in the most inhumane ways possible to imagine. You see the response to that is chants of pride for these truly inhumane attacks. As someone responsible for training the leaders of the future, there should be a clear voice in response to that.”

Even though Liyam is surrounded by people who are against Israel, she knows the MIT’s administration has the right intentions.

“Our administration has immense goodwill to provide a safe space to everyone on campus,” she said. “We are in these uncharted territories where we don’t know how to protect students, but also let people talk about the pain they have experienced. That creates this unpreparedness among high educational institutions. We are seeing the result of it now.”

Liyam’s Message to the World

Like most people, Liyam is sympathetic to the Palestinians who are suffering due to Hamas’ violence. She knows what it’s like to lose a loved one, and she doesn’t wish it upon anyone, whether they are Israeli or Palestinian.

“I am sorry for every innocent Palestinian who is not involved with Hamas and whose lives were affected by this war,” she said. “I also know that whoever listens to the news, whoever cares to check the information they ingest, it’s abundantly clear the solution to freeing these people is to demolish Hamas. Somehow these external influences make it into this progressive, antisemitic movement. These forces are blinding the students around me to the truth and recognizing the value of human lives.”

Liyam is urging her fellow students at MIT and on other campuses to check where they are getting their news and to realize this is about more than Israelis vs. Palestinians – this is about conquering evil forces who want to spread terror around the world.

Every single person is a legitimate target when you don’t have any value for human life.

“This war seems far away and unrelated to your life, but it isn’t,” she said. “This is a war between terrorists who want Sharia law vs. modern, free, democratic values. If you think that it’s going to stay in the Middle East, you are deeply wrong. No one is protected from terrorism. The people at the Nova party weren’t protected from terrorism. The families in the kibbutz were not. The grandparents were not. Every single person is a legitimate target when you don’t have any value for human life. Every single person should think very deeply about how they can stand on the right side of history and make sure the world remains free and just as we know it.”

Though Liyam is strong in her convictions and her defense of the Jewish State, at the same time, she’s suffering from trauma.

“I am not the same person I was before October 7,” she said. “I know how hard it is to see beyond all that pain, but we have to do that. This is our opportunity to do that.”

She may be afraid and devastated, but she isn’t going to let intimidating forces silence her.

“I really understand why people are scared to support Israel in these times,” she said. “All I can say is this is exactly why your voice matters more than ever.”