Hawaii limits access to Mauna Kea amid telescope protests

Hawaii’s land board on Friday, July 10, 2015, will consider an emergency rule restricting access to Mauna Kea that officials say is necessary partly because a handful of protesters have threatened and harassed others. A last minute adjustment to the new rules excludes backbacks from the list of prohibited items.

The construction of thirty-meter telescope has been halted since April, after large group of protesters tried to block the access to the mountaintop.

Just before the final vote was taken a member of the audience yelled “ku kia’i mauna”, then told the board “I’ll see you on the mountain” before he walked out of the room.

Chris Yuen, a participant in the wood panel, announced meets the necessary needs the features to keep choose upon the mountain.

Construction had delayed as protesters kept an non-stop company located on the…

According to a report, more than 100 people testified during the eight-hour meeting. The board went into executive session around 9 p.m. and came out for deliberations after 10 p.m.

The attorney general added that the rude behavior of some protesters have created unsafe working conditions for the telescope crews.

Incidents recorded include a Facebook suicide-bomb threat that made visitor center staff uneasy, protesters making a throat-slashing gesture at workers of one of the telescopes on the mountain and an unidentified woman shouting to kill haoles — white people in Hawaiian — and tourists. That’s when protesters began staying on Mauna Kea to block construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope.

University spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said that the troublesome incidents represent a “very, very small number of the overall people who have been up there throughout the months”. He said participants value maintaining kapu aloha, or respectful, nonviolent protest.

Protest leader Kahookahi Kanuha, foreground, testifies before a Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting in Honolulu on Friday, July 10, 2015, against a state proposal to limit the ability of protesters to access Mauna Kea.

Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin talks about a proposed rule restricting access to Mauna Kea on Friday, July 10, 2015, in Honolulu.

State officials had argued that the volume of protesters – hundreds of them at times – is damaging to natural resources and a strain on facilities.