Anti-Israel Demonstrations Turn Violent at Yale, Prompting Police Intervention

Yale University sees tensions escalate as anti-Israel protests spiral into violence.

By Dion J. Pierre, Algemeiner

Police were dispatched to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut on Monday to quell an illegal demonstration of anti-Israel activists that has been raging on the campus since Friday and resulted in the assault of a Jewish student.

Some 47 students were arrested early on Monday for trespassing, according to the Yale Daily News. They, and many others, had been camped outside Beinecke Plaza, claiming to starve themselves to protest Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza and the university’s links to Israel and companies that manufacture military armaments. The paper reported on Sunday that Assistant Dean Hannah Peck offered them a chance to leave without consequences.

The reported “deal” included no punishments for the demonstrators as well as a meeting with the chair of Yale’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility — which would provide a platform for the activists to push the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination.

Nonetheless, the university’s overture was repelled, and on Monday, Yale Police Department officers arrived at Beinecke Plaza, sealing off the area and dismantling tents in which the students were living for over a week. They were, the News explained, once again invited to leave and avoid criminal charges but refused to do so.

As police entered, a mass of students formed to chant, “Officer, officer, can’t you see? You’re on the wrong side of history” and other slogans comparing the officers, many of whom were Black or non-white, to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). However, the officers ultimately cleared the protesters from the area by 8 am, forcing them to move their demonstration off-campus. Displeased that order had been restored, some students proceeded to verbally abuse the officers, calling them “useless pigs” and shouting “shame on you” at them.

“The university made the decision to arrest those individuals who would not leave the plaza with the safety and security of the entire Yale community in mind and to allow access to university facilities by all members of our community,” a Yale spokesperson told The Algemeiner on Monday. “Yale provides detailed guidance on free expression, peaceable assembly, and requesting the use of on-campus outdoor spaces. Since the protest started, the university and the Yale Police Department worked to reduce the likelihood of confrontations and arrests.”

However, numerous reported confrontations did ensue during the conflagration, despite Yale’s assurances of its efforts. On Saturday, a male protestor — whose identity was concealed by a keffiyeh that he wrapped around his visage — jammed the wooden tip of a Palestinian flag into the eye a Jewish Yale student, Sahar Tartak.

Tartak, who said she was singled out for wearing Hasidic Jewish attire, was at the scene to report on the protest for The Yale Free Press, an effort that the protesters attempted to block by forming a human chain around the Beinecke Plaza encampment. After the assault, a mob of anti-Zionist protesters prevented Tartak from pursuing the assailant.

“After this Yale student jabbed my eye with his flag, I tried to yell and run after him,” Tartak wrote on X/Twitter. “But the people in this video made a human blockade to stop me from confronting my assaulter. They stood in front of me in a line throughout the night.”

Later, she told Fox News: “He had anonymity because of the keffiyeh. The organizers encourage anonymity at these events because it creates immunity, so that students can physically assault people like me and get away with it.”

Tartak managed to stay on the scene, capturing and sharing footage of the demonstration. In one video shared on X, a throng of students swayed side to side in rhythmic synchronization with an antisemitic hip-hop song, which said, “F—k Israel, Israel a b—ch … N—ga, it’s they land, why you out here tryna [sic] rob it. Bulls—t prophets, y’all just want the profit.”

Other footage showed an apparent melding of minds between Yale University students and Islamist terrorist organizations, with many shouting “Death to America” and other slogans calling for the destruction of Israel and all of Western civilization.

On Monday, Yale University told The Algemeiner that punishments for those involved in this weekend’s events are forthcoming but admitted that administrators will only go so far in holding them to account.

“Students who were arrested also will be referred for Yale disciplinary action, which includes a range of sanctions, such as reprimand, probation, or suspension,” the university said.