Giri Viswanathan photos
Beinecke Plaza at around 9 p.m. ...
... and after Tuesday protest had ended, at 11:30 p.m.
(Updated) Pro-Palestine demonstrators abandoned their eight-tent encampment at Yale’s Beinecke Plaza late Tuesday night — with promises to protest in East Rock Wednesday, when Israel’s controversial far-right national security minister plans to visit New Haven.
The protesters had set up eight tents in Beinecke Plaza shortly after 8 p.m. A crowd of more than 100 people, mostly Yale students, chanted at the time, “We are here, and we are staying all night!”
Just before 11:30 p.m., the organizers announced that they would disband the encampment to prepare for another demonstration Wednesday.
That protest will coincide with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to Shabtai, a Jewish society founded by Rabbi Shmully Hecht that is directed towards Yale students. Shabtai is not officially associated with Yale, and it’s located off campus in a privately owned mansion on Orange Street in East Rock. Ben-Gvir is scheduled to speak at Shabtai on Wednesday night.
Ben-Gvir — dubbed by the New Yorker “Israel’s minister of chaos” — has at least eight criminal convictions, including for incitement to racism and support for a terrorist organization. He’s said that one of his heroes is a mass murderer who gunned down 29 Muslims while they were praying at a holy site. Ben-Gvir rose to the role of national security minister after his far-right party joined a coalition within the Netanyahu government. His critics assail him for adhering to a Jewish supremacist ideology and for being one of his country’s “worst extremists.”
Organizers of Tuesday’s encampment explained they would be ending the Beinecke Plaza protest at around 11:30 p.m. “in order to have the maximum amount of people and energy for tomorrow’s action at 6 p.m. on Orange street.”
The crowd dispersed before midnight; the tents remained up, but with no one inside.
An organizer told the Independent that they made the decision to disband after conversations with university officials. Yale officials told the Independent that the students did not want to take the tents down, so the university would remove them overnight. Duane Lovello, the head of Yale’s Public Safety, was on site around midnight, coordinating efforts to remove the tents.
“The gathering of about 200 people, who erected eight tents, was not authorized by the university and is not known to be affiliated with any recognized student organization,” a university spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The group’s activities violated Yale’s time, place, and manner policies.”
The statement continued: “Yale supports free expression on campus, including permitting peaceful vigils, rallies, protests, and counterprotests that comply with the university’s time, place, and manner rules. Those who violate the university’s policies and instructions regarding use of outdoor spaces may face law enforcement and disciplinary action, including reprimand, probation, suspension or expulsion.”
Tuesday’s encampment came a year after Yale police arrested nearly 50 Yale students and supporters who participated in a similar, albeit much larger, pro-Palestinian tent encampment in Beinecke Plaza last spring.
Pro-Palestinian protesters had been gathering on Yale’s campus since noon Tuesday.
In addition to protesting Ben-Gvir’s upcoming visit, the demonstrators who gathered in Beinecke Plaza Tuesday night also criticized Yale for its relative silence amid the crackdown by the Trump administration on pro-Palestinian activists on college campuses across the country, and amid federal funding cuts to other Ivy League universities that the Trump administration attributes to campus antisemitism.
Protest organizers called for Yale to engage with them on a set of demands which include protecting student safety, ending surveillance of students, and the disclosure, divestment and reinvestment of Yale dollars that are tied to weapons manufacturers and the war in Gaza.
They also condemned the impending visit of Ben-Gvir to New Haven, hosted by Shabtai.
“It is abhorrent that Yale has refused to engage with us on any of our demands and are instead welcoming Ben Gvir, architect of genocide,” a student at the encampment told the Independent.
At 10 p.m., Pilar Montalvo, Yale’s Assistant Vice President for University Life, handed out a card to protestors warning that they are in “violation of Yale University policies regarding free expression, peaceable assembly and/or disruption.”
“Please stop your current action immediately. If you do not you may risk university disciplinary action and/or arrest,” the card read.
University officials confirmed that these cards do not constitute the first of the three warnings required before police clear the scene and arrest people who refuse to move.
There were no police on site as of 10:25 p.m. There had been some Yale security, the non-armed branch of public safety on campus, at the site.
Yale is one of the few Ivies that hasn’t yet been targeted with funding cuts by the Trump administration for antisemitism, though it is on a list of more than 60 universities the Department of Education has flagged for antisemitism.
The liberal Zionist nonprofit J Street has also sent out several email blasts urging its members to speak out against Ben-Gvir’s visit to New Haven.
“As Jewish and pro-Israel Americans, we want to make one thing clear: Itamar Ben-Gvir does not speak in our names,” reads an online petition entitled, “Itamar Ben-Gvir: Get Outta Here.”
“Not when he sabotages the ceasefire and hostage deal. Not when he slanders hostage families and peace advocates. Not when he supports anti-democratic crackdowns. Not when he spouts anti-Palestinian hate. Not when he shields violent settlers from accountability.
“So, as he comes to our country and our community and seeks support and a platform, we’re joining together to say one thing clearly: Itamar Ben-Gvir: Get Outta Here!
Thomas Breen contributed to this report.
