Yale Students Stage Overnight Protest against Visit by Israeli Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – More than 200 students at Yale University held an overnight demonstration on Tuesday to protest a planned visit by Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The protest began around 6 p.m. (22:00 GMT) with about 25 participants.
By 9:30 p.m. (01:30 GMT), eight tents had been set up, and the number of demonstrators had grown significantly.
“We’re here, and we’re staying the night,” a protest organizer said through a megaphone.
Ben-Gvir is currently on his first tour of the United States, with stops in New Haven and New York.
Shabtai, a Jewish organization at Yale, invited Ben-Gvir to speak.
In comments to the student newspaper, Shabtai founder Shmully Hecht said: "At a personal level I believe it is specifically unapologetic events such as this one that has preserved Yale as a more moderate safe haven for Jews in the current toxic Ivy community of extremism."
The Sumud Coalition, a pro-Palestinian student group at Yale, said the demonstration was led by independent students opposed to Ben-Gvir’s visit and Yale’s silence on the matter.
The protest comes in the wake of April 2024 demonstrations, during which students urged Yale to sever financial ties with weapons manufacturers over Israel’s war in Gaza.
During those protests, US police arrested 48 people, including 44 Yale students, while clearing the first of two encampments.
Israel launched the US-backed war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023 after a retaliatory operation by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. At least 51,266 people have been killed in the brutal war so far.
