Yale revokes status of pro-Palestinian group for protesting Israeli minister who backs ethnic cleansing

Yale University has revoked the student group status of Yalies4Palestine following a campus protest against the visit of far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an event which critics say is further evidence of the growing suppression of pro-Palestinian advocacy and free speech across American universities.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Yalies4Palestine announced: “Today, the Yale Administration revoked Yalies4Palestine’s status as an official student organisation… They cannot silence us. FREE PALESTINE.” The group declared that it remains a movement, not merely a student society, and affirmed its commitment to supporting the Palestinian people. “Gaza is our core. We will not stop. We will not rest.”

The decision by Yale follows a protest and encampment staged on Tuesday evening at the university’s Beinecke Plaza, ahead of Ben-Gvir’s appearance at a closed-door event hosted by the Jewish society Shabtai. Demonstrators, including many students, erected tents and chanted slogans including “Ben-Gvir, how many kids did you kill today?” before dispersing under threat of disciplinary action.

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Yale administrators accused Yalies4Palestine of “flagrant violations” of university policies, claiming the group promoted the protest via Instagram, even though the encampment was reportedly organised by an unaffiliated group of students. Yalies4Palestine has since been removed from Yale Connect, the university’s database of recognised student organisations, stripping it of the right to book rooms, apply for funding, or participate in official student events.

This move comes amid a wider wave of crackdowns on pro-Palestinian student activism at American campuses. Over the past year, elite institutions such as Columbia University and Harvard have faced intense political pressure from lawmakers and President Donald Trump, who in January issued an executive order directing federal agencies to take action against perceived anti-Semitism in higher education. Critics say these measures have effectively conflated legitimate criticism of Israeli policies with hate speech and have led to a chilling effect on campus expression.

Ben-Gvir, currently on his first visit to the US, is a deeply controversial figure. Convicted in 2007 of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organisation, he is a former disciple of the late Meir Kahane, a Jewish supremacist whose political movement was outlawed in both Israel and the US. Ben-Gvir has openly praised Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli-American settler who massacred 29 Palestinians worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994. As National Security Minister, Ben-Gvir has advocated policies widely described as calls for ethnic cleansing, including the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.

Critics have sharply questioned Yale’s decision to host such a figure while simultaneously penalising those who oppose him. American Muslims for Palestine – Connecticut Chapter said in a social media post: “Arrests are being made – but not the war criminal.” The group slammed the removal of protesters while Ben-Gvir was welcomed with little scrutiny, despite his openly genocidal rhetoric and history of glorifying violence.

Yalies4Palestine’s removal echoes similar actions taken across the US. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis banned Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at public universities, accusing the organisation of material support for terrorism, claims that have not been substantiated in court and which have been strongly rejected. At Yale, the administration cited ongoing investigations into “disturbing antisemitic conduct” during the protest, though it provided no specific evidence. American universities have adopted the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism which conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish racism.

The targeting of Palestinian advocacy on campus coincides with Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, during which it has killed over 51,000 Palestinians since 7 October 2023. Human rights observers and legal scholars have increasingly described the military campaign as a genocide, citing the high civilian death toll and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure. Ben-Gvir has urged the bombing of food and aid depots in Gaza, describing such acts as necessary to “create military and political pressure.”

The Israeli minister’s US tour included a dinner at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where he claimed to have secured support from prominent Republicans for his call to escalate attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip. This embrace of figures like Ben-Gvir is seen as the mainstreaming of the hateful ideology of Kahanism, once considered a political fringe in Israel but which is now at the heart of Israeli politics.