Unrest on American campuses: Yale police arrest 47 anti-Israel protesters as 'Gaza solidarity encampments' spread

(JNS) — Yale University police arrested 47 anti-Israel protesters for trespassing on Monday morning, as “Gaza solidarity encampments” continue to disrupt college campuses across the country.

After the arrests in New Haven, hundreds of students continued to rally while university maintenance workers cleared Yale’s central Beinecke Plaza of tents, the Yale Daily News student newspaper reported.

Anti-Israel students formed the first of the encampments at Columbia University on Wednesday ahead of congressional testimony by Columbia president Minouche Shafik about Jew-hatred on campus. Shafik asked the New York City Police Department to intervene on Thursday, and more than 100 Columbia students were arrested and the tent encampment cleared.

Those arrests and the destruction of the tent encampment on Columbia’s South Lawn did not stop the protesters, who promptly shifted to Columbia’s West Lawn and built a second tent encampment.

The Columbia demonstration has since inspired copycat protests at the University of Michigan, New York University, Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among other campuses.

The disruptive student occupations have drawn the attention and condemnation of national Jewish groups and elected officials from both major parties.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national president of the Anti-Defamation League, released a video message on Monday with recommendations for Shafik to restore the safety of Jewish students.

“Number one, we need NYPD back on this campus or bring in the National Guard,” Greenblatt said. “Number two, no masks on campus.”

“This isn’t Fallujah, this is Morningside Heights,” he added, referring to the restive Iraqi city that was one of the strongholds of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State.

Greenblatt also called for students involved in disrupting campus life to be immediately suspended.

“When they say, ‘Revolution is the only answer,’ what do you think they mean?” Greenblatt asked. “We as Jews know what happens when you don’t take people at their word.”

‘It’s an attack on our values’

All 10 of New York’s Republican members of Congress called on Shafik to resign on Monday, saying in a letter that “anarchy has engulfed the campus of Columbia University.”

“The ongoing situation that has unfolded is a direct symptom of your continued lax enforcement of policy and clear double standards,” the New York GOP delegation wrote in a letter led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.). 

“While the rot is systemic, the responsibility rests squarely on your shoulders. It is time for Columbia University to turn the page on this shameful chapter. This can only be done through the restoration of order and your prompt resignation,” they added.

Democrats also cited the double standards related to Jew-hatred on campus with Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) saying in remarks in front of Columbia’s Hillel chapter on Monday that any other minority group would not have to encounter the level of hate that Jews are experiencing at Columbia.

“This wouldn’t be happening. It wouldn’t have gotten this far,” Moskowitz said. “But because it’s Jews, we fall into this weird category. Oh, we’re not protected. That’s why antisemitism is on the rise.”

Moskowitz was joined by Reps. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), all of whom are Jewish.

Reps. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) held their own “Rally to Protect Jewish Students” around the corner at the same time that their Democratic colleagues spoke.

“This is truly an attack on democracy. It’s an attack on our values,” D’Esposito said. “When we hear ‘Death to Israel, death to America,’ it’s a threat to all of us.”

“It’s the right thing to stand behind Israel, stand behind its people and do the right thing,” he added.