Yale University has become the latest top institution in the United States to ban Palestinian groups. This time, it is in protest against the visit by far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben Gwil.
A stop at Ben Goville near a university in New Haven, Connecticut, sparked rage as protesters criticized the minister’s support for surge in attacks on Gaza on Wednesday, and more recently criticised his call to bomb “depots of food and aid” on Palestinian territory.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, he laided Jalar, the director of advocacy for democracy in the Arab world (Dawn), described the university’s silence about Ben Gwyr, who “openly called out for genocide” and the subsequent crackdown on protesters “not just moral contradictions, but moral and legal failures.”
The demonstration began Tuesday night when protesters gathered on campus and began setting up tents at the short-lived camp. For hours, the scene resembles the protests at camps that swept US universities last year, often urging crackdowns and policy changes from managers.
The next day, Yale said in a statement that the camp violated policies relating to the use of outdoor spaces, and students who were warned or punished in previous cases faced “immediate disciplinary action.”
He added that the university had been investigating “interfering with anti-Semitist conduct at the assembly” without providing details.
The administration also said student organization Yalies4Palestine would lose its official status to “send calls via social media to allow others to participate in the event” and later take credit for the event.
In Yale Daily News, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters, Yale Daily News, denied which groups the event was partnered or planned with.
The protest continued Wednesday night when Ben Guville arrived for a speech at Shabtay, a private Jewish society that he described as “based at Yale University.”
According to the video for the event, Ben Gwil briefly taunted his office by telling CNN it was a “winning sign” gesture, and his office told CNN it was a “winning sign” gesture.
His office later said that a bottle of water had been thrown at him by the crowd. He was unharmed, including a crowd and a non-student.
“Attacking students…I won’t save Yale.”
In a wider pressure campaign at top universities under the control of President Donald Trump, Yale’s latest punishment for pro-Palestinian protesters comes during the wider pressure campaign.
Former President Joe Biden was seen as supporting the suppression of the Palestinian protest, which he described as “anti-Semitic” in April last year, but the Trump administration escalated its response.
The Trump administration has used “anti-Semitism” claims to deport non-citizen pro-Palestinian University protesters and threatened to freeze or freeze federal funds from several top institutions, including Columbia University in New York and Harvard University in Massachusetts, if they disagree with a series of policy changes.
Through the protests, organizers have repeatedly challenged the notion that such demonstrations are anti-Semitic, noting the regular involvement of Jewish students and denies rare cases of anti-Semitic statements made at frequently published demonstrations.
In their statements brought by student newspapers, Yale’s pro-Palestinian protesters accused Yale of having come down particularly harshly to avoid requests from the Trump administration.
“Attacking students and alienating members of the community didn’t save Harvard or Columbia. It’s not going to save Yale,” they said.
Had Yale not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comments on whether concerns about the Trump administration’s response notified disciplinary action or whether he responded to Ben Gwyr’s visit.
On her side, Hermet Dillon, Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, responded to a video of X showing protesters refuse to break the human chain and allow them to pass the ranks on campus.
The post allegedly stated, “Jewish students are no longer allowed to walk on Yale campus!”
Dillon writes that her office is “tracking concerns at Yale and keeping in touch with affected students.”
Critics said that forceful reactions to pro-Palestinian protesters have become common in the US, but some observers said the dissonance on display at Yale is particularly impressive.
Ben Gwil was convicted in 2008 for instigating Israeli racism and supporting a “terrorist” organization, a “terrorist” organization that supports the annexation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian territory.
He is seeking a banned military operation in Gaza, where UN experts say Israel is already committed “genocide.”
He appealed to Israel to commit what constitutes war crimes under Gaza’s international law. Most recently he posted an X and told “senior Republican officials” on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Estate in Florida that Israel should bomb “a food and aid depot.”
“The deepest contradiction”
Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, said Yale’s silence about Ben Gwyr in an organization that claims to be based in the university “exposes the deepest contradictions of our society and those institutions that are supposed to be dedicated to seeking truth and critical thinking.”
“[Ben-Gvir] She said. “But those who protest can face serious consequences,” she said.
“This is a moment when universities are fighting for their lives and are trying to assert that the American people are worth saving in the face of the Trump onslaught,” she said. “Even so, they do not show any moral courage.”
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