Yale students arrested at protest over university investment in arms manufacturers. ‘It was very brutal’

About 45 protesters at Yale University were arrested and charged with trespassing Monday morning during a protest seeking for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers that supply Israel with arms, police said.

New Haven police officers assisted the Yale Police Department in the area of the Beinecke Plaza, where protesters were given commands to leave the property or be arrested, police said.

The protesters refused to leave and were charged by Yale officers with first-degree trespassing, police said.

“They were transported to a Yale Police facility where they were processed and released,” police said. “At approximately 8 (a.m.), a group of about 200 protesters returned to block the intersection of Grove Street and College Street. The protest is currently ongoing. The New Haven Police Department has no current plans to make any arrests of non-violent protesters.”

The protesters dispersed shortly before 5 p.m. at the request of police, according to the mayor. There were no further arrests.

Noor Kareem, a sophomore from Michigan who was one of those arrested at Beinecke Plaza, said, “It was very brutal. We were all crying. I was asleep and we were woken up by shouts that police are here. It was very cold. I went out with my blanket. … We were all sitting there singing and crying together.”

Kareem said she was sharing a tent with friends who were not among those designated to be arrested but they were arrested as well. The arrests began at 6:30 a.m.

“It seemed like the cops had a time which they were supposed to arrest people, because they were looking at their watches, and then all of a sudden they just grabbed someone who wasn’t linked with us because we were all holding arms,” Kareem said. “One person was just walking by and they grabbed her and then she was the first to get arrested, and then they started going into the circle and grabbing people one by one.”

At College and Grove, outside Woolsey Hall, students chanted slogans such as “Hey hey, ho ho, there’s blood on your portfolio.”

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said New Haven police assisted Yale police in the arrests in “a supportive role.”

“New Haven has a long history supporting people’s rights to express their views and struggle through very challenging issues,” he said. “What’s important is that people are safe. And ultimately, protesters blocking two busy city streets cannot happen indefinitely. So we’ve been asking the protesters to move off the street onto the sidewalk and they’ve been unwilling to do so.”

Elicker said if the students continue to block the streets, “at some point … we will have to make arrests. Of course we’d like to avoid doing that because ultimately we want to support anyone having the ability to demonstrate.”

He said there had been concerns about safety on Beinecke Plaza, with issues of harassment and someone allegedly being poked in the eye.

Rabbi Meir Posner, the Chabad Jewish chaplain at Yale, said, “Although we support the rights of students to speak out on various different issues, when it crosses the line into antisemitic calls, and especially when it crosses into violence, that’s something that needs to be taken very seriously by the Yale administration. We believe that the Yale should enforce their code of conduct and their policies consistently, equally and fairly.”

Posner referred to an incident Saturday night in which a Yale student, whom the New York Post said was “wearing Hasidic Jewish attire,” allegedly was jabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag.

Posner said the antisemitism included “calls supporting Hamas. There was a shrine at the protest celebrating a convicted murderer. … There were calls specifically directed at Jews using various different dog whistles and, in some cases, direct hostile language towards Jews.”

Posner added, “To be clear, I’m not suggesting that everyone participating in the protests are antisemitic. That’s not the suggestion here. But it’s clear that there were certain tones that crossed into that territory and that’s not OK. Students at Yale need to be able to feel safe and protected and have freedom of movement. And if they’re visibly Jewish and are targeted because of their Jewish identity, that’s cause for concern.”

State Republican Chairman Ben Proto issued a statement saying, “We will not be silent about what is taking place at Yale. To see college students at Connecticut and one of the word’s (sic) top universities openly sympathizing with a terrorist group and committing acts of violence against Jewish students is disgraceful. Anyone who commits these violent acts must be prosecuted.”

Colin Morse, an architecture student, said at the protest, “As a graduate student here I’m very saddened by the fact that Yale decided that arrests were a bigger priority than opening up meetings with students who are representing the movement that divests away from weapons manufacturing.”

“I’m very proud of my community,” said Matthew Horowitz. “I’m a New Haven resident. I’m a Jew. I think that the arrest of the peaceful protesters was unreasonable, and you’re just seeing community come together to support people under occupation. Economic sanctions, personal actions, boycotts, these are the peaceful means of protest that we’ve seen make great change in history. And that’s what worked with apartheid South Africa.”

Hundreds of protesters had been calling for Yale to divest from arms manufacturers and built an encampment on the Yale campus Friday evening, according to a statement.

At the protest’s peak, over 400 people gathered outside of the Schwarzman Center in Beinecke Plaza, according to Yale’s student newspaper, the Yale Daily News . Students built an encampment with 24 tents outside of a Board of Trustees dinner honoring outgoing President Peter Salovey to demand the university withdraw its investments in weapons companies directly aiding Israel. Salovey previously announced he would be stepping down this year .

A Yale spokeswoman issued a statement saying, “For the past week, protestors advocating for Yale’s divestment from military weapons manufacturers converged on Hewitt Quadrangle (Beinecke Plaza). Over the weekend, these protests grew to include several hundred people — Yale undergraduates, graduate and professional students, and people with no Yale affiliation.

“Early this morning, the university again asked protestors to leave and remove their belongings,” the statement said. “Before taking this step, the university had notified protestors numerous times that if they continued to violate Yale’s policies and instructions regarding occupying outdoor spaces, they could face law enforcement and disciplinary action, including reprimand, probation, or suspension.

“The university also spent several hours in discussion with student protestors yesterday, offering them the opportunity to meet with trustees, including the chair of the Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility (CCIR), and to avoid arrest if they left the plaza by the end of the weekend. They declined this offer and continued to occupy the plaza. The university extended the deadline for a response to their offer to meet with the CCIR and trustees several times, with negotiations concluding unsuccessfully at 11:30pm.

“Today, members of Yale’s police department isolated the area and asked protestors to show identification; some left voluntarily. When others did not comply after multiple requests, the Yale Police Department (YPD) issued summonses to 47 students, according to the most recent report from the chief of YPD. 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 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. 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.

“Yesterday, President Peter Salovey sent a message to the community, noting that the university would not tolerate behavior that interfered with university operations or threatened, harassed, or intimidated others.”

The Yale students said they were also showing solidarity with recent Columbia University protests, which resulted in mass arrests on Thursday. The Columbia students, who built similar encampments protesting university investments in weapons manufacturers, were forcefully removed from Columbia’s property in a decision that has brought widespread criticism.

Columbia canceled in-person classes Monday and new demonstrations broke out on other U.S. college campuses as tensions continue to grow over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up encampments on other campuses around the country, including at the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of North Carolina.

“We are here to defend students’ right to peaceful protest, and we stand in solidarity with our peers who have been arrested and suspended at Columbia,” Yale student Lumisa Bista had said in a statement from Occupy Beinecke, the group who helped organized the protest. “We condemn the mobilization of police against students who were demonstrating for peace.”

“We are here asking, peacefully, to be heard by the board that is meant to serve our interests,” said Yale student Patrick Hayes in a statement from Occupy Beinecke. “We refuse to accept our university’s complicity in the slaughter of civilians, the eradication of entire families, and the razing of Palestinian land. Our encampment stands for peace.”

According to the group, Yale holds thousands of shares in index funds from defense and weapons manufacturers that help aid Israel’s war with Hamas.

“I am here because Palestinian life and all life is precious,” said Yale student Adam Nussbaum in a statement.

The Occupy Beinecke “Book not Bombs” protest comes amid weeks of student-led activism calling for the university to disclose and divest investments in weapons manufacturers. More than 2,000 letters have been sent to Salovey from students urging Yale to act, according to a statement from the group. But despite the pressure, the university has so far not signaled it would divest, according to the group.

“From New Haven to Gaza, all students deserve the right to a safe and supported education –– deserve to learn without fear of being bombed and drone-striked,” said protester Craig Birkhead-Morton. “The University’s continued weapons investments imply that American school shootings merit divestment, but the destruction of every university in Gaza and slaughter of thousands of Palestinian students does not.”

The protesters had said they would continue to occupy the Beinecke Plaza until Yale divests from the companies.