Anti-Israel protesters’ attempt at second encampment fizzles out after school threatens ‘retribution’

Pro-Palestinian protesters at Yale University reportedly disbanded an encampment after the school threatened arrests despite promising to carry it through the night.

The activists picked up their tents and left after 11:00 p.m. Tuesday night, announcing that administrators had threatened “retribution,” Yale News reported. The incident was a far cry from the often persistent and disruptive protests at universities in 2024 that prompted the Trump administration to investigate Yale and other universities over alleged antisemitism.

“The group’s activities violated Yale’s time, place, and manner policies,” a Yale spokesperson told the newspaper. “University officials clearly articulated Yale’s policies and the consequences of violating them.”

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The protesters disbanded after Yale officials reportedly passed around cards ordering them to stop their unauthorized encampment “immediately” or “risk university disciplinary action and/or arrest.” The cards showed a QR code linking to Yale’s rules for protests and assemblies. Protesters then began chanting, “Do not scan the QR code,” Yale News reported.

Other Yale policies specifically ban people from setting up structures such as a “tent” in an outdoor campus space unless they obtain permission.

The crowd of around 200 had reportedly gathered in opposition to Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s upcoming visit to a Jewish organization near the university. Organizers said they would attempt another campus protest Wednesday.

Protesters, many covering their faces with Palestinian keffiyehs or other items, appeared to formed a human chain to block individuals from accessing parts of the campus where the demonstration took place, according to videos posted on X by Netanel Crispe, a Jewish student at the university.

President Donald Trump’s Education Department (ED) launched an investigation into Yale on March 19 based on discrimination complaints claiming that anti-Israel activists were making Jewish students feel unwelcome. Yale and dozens of other schools received a March 10 letter warning them “to protect Jewish students on campus” or lose federal funds.

Yale was one of several campuses to see chaotic protests against Israel in 2024, with attendees pitching tents, getting arrested by the dozens and stabbing a visibly Jewish student in the eye with a flag pole for trying to film them.

A university spokesperson told Yale News in March that school officials “have a track record of taking antisemitism seriously and will cooperate fully with” the Trump administration’s inquiries.

The Trump administration has already frozen millions of dollars in federal funds and grants to Columbia University and Harvard University after federal officials claimed the schools failed to properly address antisemitism on campus. Harvard responded to the funding cuts by filing a lawsuit against the administration on Monday.

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