7/30/2023 0 Comments Hawaii telescope photoOn July 10, Ige announced construction would begin the week of July 15, following a four-year delay. The Native Hawaiian community has been fighting the construction of the telescope in courts and on the ground for about a decade, since plans to build on Mauna Kea were first announced in 2009. The emergency declaration has limited public access to the mountain, but as the protectors gain supporters from outside the state - including statements from presidential candidates and solidarity protests in several states - they say they’re in it for the long haul. More broadly, they are protesting a history of American colonialism that goes back more than a century and the increasingly militarized police force on the island. ![]() David Ige signed an emergency order to give law enforcement more authority to remove activists on Mauna Kea, close roads, and ensure delivery of materials to the construction site.Īccording to a state spokesperson, the activists were released right away and charged with “obstruction of government operations.” Up to 2,000 Native Hawaiians and activists remain camped at the base of Mauna Kea, where they have been for over a week, to prevent the $1.4 billion construction project known as the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT, from getting underway. ![]() The arrests came after the kupuna - some of whom use canes or wheelchairs - were blocking the road to the summit. On July 17, police in riot gear arrested at least 33 Native Hawaiian elders, or kupuna, for peacefully blocking construction of a massive telescope on sacred land on the dormant volcano of Mauna Kea.
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