Nine people among the 200-strong who protested at the Cambridge location of an Israeli defense contractor were arrested — with two of them charged with assault and battery on a police officer.
Cambridge Police on Monday arrested Eliza Sathler, 26, of Revere; Pearl Delaney Moore, 29, of Boston; Calla M. Walsh, 19, of Cambridge; Sophie Ross, 22, of Housatonic; Vera Van De Seyp, 30, of Somerville; Michael Eden, 27, of Cambridge; Evan Aldred Fournier-Swire, 19, of Bristol, R.I.; Willow Ross Carretero Chavez, 21, of Somerville; and Molly Wexler-Romig, 33, of Boston.
They were each arraigned Tuesday morning in Cambridge District Court. All had charges of disorderly conduct, but some were also charged with vandalizing property and resisting arrest. Moore and Sathler were also charged with assault and battery on a police officer, with Sathler also charged with possessing and throwing an incendiary device.
“Starting at 10 am, Cambridge Police officers were monitoring a protest outside Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, whose office has been the site of numerous protests and acts of vandalism and property destruction in recent weeks,” a Cambridge Police spokesman wrote in a Monday evening statement.
Those alleged acts of vandalism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war include police-documented instances of spray painting the sidewalk, locking themselves to the front of the building, breaking off a communications box on the exterior of the building and, according to the police report filed in this most recent incident, the spraying of insulation into exterior doors “in an attempt to prevent them from opening.”
The Monday protest began around 10 a.m., according to the report, when roughly 200 participants gathered at the corner of Bishop Allen Drive and Prospect Street — a major artery that police say the protestors completely blocked. While police say it was “initially peaceful,” they said they soon found cartons of eggs, glass bottles and more paint that they wrote were likely instruments of planned vandalism.
The confiscations did not go well, as reports from multiple officers at the scene state many in the crowd, starting at around 11:15 a.m., “breached metal barricades” and “began throwing eggs at Elbit’s office building.” As officers moved in, they report the crowd “became increasingly hostile and violent — they threw eggs, smoke bombs, and other projectiles at officers.” So the cops called in backup.
“Officers provided ample space and opportunities for the protesters to engage in freedom of speech, however, officers were forced to intervene when the group’s conduct became violent and felonious,” Sgt. Michael Levecque wrote in his report.
Elbit Elbit Systems Ltd., based in Haifa, Israel, describes itself as an “international high technology company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world, primarily in the defense and homeland security arena.”
Its wholly owned American subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, LLC, is headquartered in Texas and opened its Cambridge Innovation Center in December of last year to host 60 software, mechanical and electrical engineers, the company wrote in a press release then, to take advantage of the “the region’s vibrant Life Sciences Corridor” and proximity to MIT and Harvard.
