Yale Protests: Arrests, Ben-Gvir Visit, and Federal Scrutiny

The Yale protests over the war in Gaza ran for more than two years, peaking with a 48-person arrest at an April 2024 encampment on Beinecke Plaza, producing documents that revealed drone surveillance and federal intelligence coordination by the Yale Police Department, and ending with a banned student group, federal antisemitism investigations, and an endowment that never divested. No federal funding has been pulled from Yale over the protests, as of the most recent reporting.

What Protesters Wanted

The core demand was that Yale disclose and divest its endowment — valued at more than $40 billion — from companies that manufacture military weapons. Yale’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility formally considered the question and, on April 17, 2024, concluded that “military weapons manufacturing for authorized sales did not meet the threshold of grave social injury,” reasoning that such manufacturing supports “socially necessary uses, such as law enforcement and national security.”¹

Organizers filed new proposals in November 2024. In February 2025, the committee again declined to recommend divestment. A month later, organizers filed a formal complaint with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, alleging that at least $4 billion of the $40.7 billion endowment was tied to military weapons manufacturers and suppliers, and that 99.7 percent of the endowment remained undisclosed. A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said the office did not believe it was appropriate to use law enforcement authority to “control the financial decisions or policy choices of private universities.”²

In the spring of 2024, students staged an eight-day hunger strike over the issue.³ The university’s position did not move.

The Beinecke Plaza Encampment and 48 Arrests

Daytime demonstrations at Beinecke Plaza began on April 15, 2024, with participants dispersing each night after university warnings.⁴ That changed on the evening of Friday, April 19, when hundreds of students rallied outside a board of trustees dinner and set up an overnight encampment called “Occupy Beinecke,” erecting more than 27 tents.³

Over the weekend, administrators offered to arrange a meeting between organizers and two trustees, including one who sat on the Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility, if students cleared the plaza and agreed not to return. Organizers rejected the offer because Yale would not commit to disclosing investment information beyond what was already public.⁵

At about 6:30 a.m. on Monday, April 22, 2024, the Yale Police Department cleared the encampment and arrested 48 people: 44 Yale students and four others unaffiliated with the university. All were charged with first-degree criminal trespass, a class A misdemeanor.⁶ Then-President Peter Salovey initially reported 60 arrests, a figure the university corrected to 48 the following day.⁴ Protesters said they received only one warning to leave, despite police claims of multiple requests, and some said officers prevented them from collecting medication and personal necessities.

By 8:00 a.m. that same morning, about 200 protesters had returned and blocked the intersection of Grove and College Streets. New Haven police negotiated with the group through the day, and protesters voluntarily cleared the intersection shortly before 5:00 p.m.⁷

A second encampment went up on Cross Campus on the afternoon of Sunday, April 28, 2024. Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis repeatedly tried to persuade protesters to use other forms of demonstration. Early on April 30, university personnel issued a final warning that protesters who stayed would face “discipline including suspension for violating university rules and arrest for trespassing.” All chose to leave, and no arrests were made.⁸

The following day, May 1, protesters marched to Salovey’s residence and to Yale Police Department headquarters. Four people were arrested. Footage reported by the Yale Daily News showed YPD Chief Anthony Campbell among the officers who tackled a non-Yale-affiliated protester and held them on the ground for at least 90 seconds.⁹

How the Criminal Charges Ended

The 42 student defendants from the April 22 arrests filed a motion to dismiss, arguing in part that police had not personally communicated the dispersal order to each student as required by Connecticut law.¹⁰

By October 2024, most cases had resolved. Twenty-seven students had their misdemeanor charges dropped in exchange for a $90 fine for simple trespassing, an infraction rather than a criminal offense. One additional student agreed to the same fine plus 40 hours of community service. Thirteen students chose to continue fighting the charges, with a court date set for December 4, 2024, at New Haven Superior Court. Some of the holdouts cited delays in receiving police body camera footage. Yale said it did not have the authority to drop the charges, which were being pursued by the State of Connecticut.¹¹

What the Police Were Doing Behind the Scenes

In late May 2024, journalist Theia Chatelle filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Yale Police Department, relying on a 2008 Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission ruling that the YPD’s law enforcement powers make Yale a public agency subject to state disclosure requirements. The lawsuit was settled, and Yale handed over 1,936 internal files.¹²

Reporting by Jewish Currents and The Nation based on those documents showed that the YPD maintained at least three drones, including a military-grade Skydio model, and used them to conduct aerial surveillance of protest encampments and gauge crowd sizes. Officers tracked students’ social media accounts and used ID card swipe history — logs of which buildings a student entered — to identify individuals and build files for potential punishment. They coordinated not only with the New Haven Police Department but with a federal counterterrorism intelligence-sharing center, the Connecticut Intelligence Center.¹³

The FBI entered the picture as well. On April 30, 2024, FBI New Haven head Jennifer Wagner offered Chief Campbell support related to the protests. The YPD subsequently worked with the FBI to investigate a student accused of poking a counter-protester with a flag, tracking the student to his apartment and seizing his cell phone by warrant.¹³

The Nation separately obtained documents showing that surveillance of pro-Palestine students had begun months earlier, between October and December 2023. The YPD used “Instagram open-source searching” to identify planned protests, and administrators, particularly Assistant Vice President for University Life Pilar Montalvo, were copied on nearly every YPD email about pro-Palestine events. Administrators attended rallies and, according to the documents, made unsolicited calls to students and their families about their activism.¹⁴

Internal YPD communications showed leadership describing protesters as a “small group of vandals and criminals.” Assistant Chief Von Narcisse called them “pathetic and sad” and, in an April 17, 2024, email, cited the department’s status as a “legit police force” with “zero tolerance and rapid consequences for lawlessness,” contrasting YPD’s approach with what he characterized as Columbia University’s weaker policing.¹³

Mohammad Tajsar of the ACLU called the YPD’s collaboration with the Connecticut Intelligence Center “extraordinarily worrying,” saying it turned a place of learning into a “disturbing video game for overzealous campus police officers.” Sabiya Ahamed of Palestine Legal argued that the surveillance created a “chilling effect” designed to make students “feel like they are doing something wrong, even criminal.”¹²

On January 26, 2025, the Yale College Council voted 18-5 to propose an independent oversight board for the YPD, citing the drones, social media tracking, swipe monitoring, and intelligence coordination. Yale Public Safety Director Duane Lovello acknowledged drones had been used during the spring protests but said they were operated by Yale Security rather than the YPD, and that some footage in the released files actually came from a New Haven Police Department drone. Dean Lewis said the university was “in favor” of an advisory board with student representation, though plans had been delayed by personnel transitions.¹⁵

The Ben-Gvir Visit and the 2025 Crackdown

A new flash point came in April 2025, when Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited New Haven to speak at an event hosted by Shabtai, a private Jewish intellectual discussion society not affiliated with Yale.¹⁶ The invitation divided the Jewish community: at least three Shabtai members resigned in protest, and 20 rabbis who were Yale alumni published an open letter urging the society to disinvite Ben-Gvir. Shabtai director Rabbi Shmully Hecht defended the invitation, calling Ben-Gvir a “bold, resolute leader.”¹⁷

On April 22, 2025, the day before the speech, roughly 200 people set up eight tents on Beinecke Plaza. The group disbanded after a university “free expression facilitator” warned them they were violating campus rules.¹⁸ The next evening, roughly 300 protesters gathered outside the Shabtai house on Orange Street. When Ben-Gvir arrived at 7:33 p.m., he was met with chants of “shame.”¹⁹ As he departed, some demonstrators threw water bottles at him; he was not injured, and his office said he responded by smiling and making a “V” sign. Four types of security were present: the New Haven Police Department, the Yale Police Department, Israeli security forces, and private security.

Local activist Mark Colville, a co-founder of the Amistad Catholic Worker House, was arrested by New Haven police following the event. Police alleged he kicked and struck vehicles leaving the venue. He was charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer and released on a $2,000 bond.²⁰

The day after the Ben-Gvir protest, on April 23, 2025, Yale College revoked the registered student organization status of Yalies4Palestine. The university said the group had “flagrantly violated” rules by promoting and “taking credit” for the unauthorized Beinecke gathering on social media despite prior warnings. Yale also cited reports of “disturbing antisemitic conduct at the gathering” and said it was investigating the event. The revocation stripped the group of its ability to reserve campus spaces, request university funding, use the Yale name, or participate in student activities bazaars.²¹ Yale also warned that students previously disciplined for protest-related policy violations faced “immediate disciplinary action,” including possible reprimand, probation, suspension, or expulsion.²²

Protesters denied that Yalies4Palestine organized the gathering and condemned the de-registration as an attempt by the university “to appease the Trump administration and stave off federal funding cuts,” citing actions previously taken against Harvard and Columbia.²¹

Federal Scrutiny and Where Yale Stands

The Ben-Gvir visit drew the attention of the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. On April 24, 2025, the task force issued a statement referencing “videos [that] have surfaced of an antisemitic encampment and outrageous examples of harassment and bigotry” in New Haven, but said it was “cautiously encouraged by Yale’s actions,” including enforcement of protest policies, de-registration of Yalies4Palestine, and the opening of disciplinary investigations.²³

Yale was already under separate federal review. On March 19, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education had opened a second investigation into antisemitism at the university based on a complaint citing eight instances of alleged discrimination and harassment of Jewish students. As of mid-2026, Yale had not had any federal funding terminated over antisemitism allegations, in contrast with Columbia University, which saw $400 million in federal funding revoked by the Trump administration in March 2025.²⁴

A report released in April 2026 by Yale’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education, formed by President Maurie McInnis in April 2025, did not cite antisemitism as a primary driver of declining public trust in universities. Committee member David Bromwich called the Trump administration’s identification of antisemitism at universities a “serious exaggeration.” The report credited Yale with navigating the conflicts following October 7 “with less long-term friction than some of its peer institutions,” attributing the outcome to a recommitment to the Woodward Report, the university’s foundational policy on free expression.²⁴

1
New Haven Register. Yale Protests: New Haven Divestment Israel Gaza
2
The Intercept. Yale Endowment Israel Weapons Divest
3
Yale Daily News. Looking Back: A Year of Protests on Israel and Palestine at Yale
4
New York Times. Yale Students Arrests Protests
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Yale Daily News. Pro-Divestment Protesters Continue Beinecke Encampment for Third Day
6
WTNH. Hundreds of Yale Students Camp Outside for Pro-Palestinian Protest
7
City of New Haven. Statement on Yale Protests
8
Yale University. Statement Regarding Campus Protests Cross Campus
9
Yale Daily News. External Review of May Protester Arrests Acknowledges Lapses in YPD Conduct, Exonerates Chief
10
New Haven Independent. Motion to Dismiss
11
Yale Daily News. Charges Dismissed Against 27 Arrested Student Protesters; 13 to Continue Legal Battle
12
Jewish Currents. Inside the Yale Police Department War on Student Protesters
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Jewish Currents. Inside the Yale Police Department War on Student Protesters
14
The Nation. Yale University Surveils Pro-Palestine Student Protests
15
Yale Daily News. YCC Passes Proposal for Yale Police Oversight Board
16
New York Times. Yale Protest Israel Security Minister
17
Jewish Telegraphic Agency. An Elite Jewish Society at Yale Fractures Over Its Director’s Embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
18
CNN. Yale University Protest Israel Gaza
19
Yale Daily News. Far-Right Israeli Minister Ignites Protests Outside of Shabtai
20
CT Public. New Haven Activist Arrested Following Protest of Israeli Politician
21
Yale Daily News. Yale Revokes Yalies4Palestine’s Club Status
22
Yale University. Yale Maintains Calm Campus and Takes Disciplinary Action
23
GSA. Task Force to Combat Antisemitism Statement Regarding Yale’s Actions
24
Yale Daily News. Report on Trust in Universities Skips Common Accusation: Antisemitism