Yale University police arrested dozens of protesters after they allegedly refused orders to leave the scene of a pro-Palestinian, pro-divestment protest Monday, Connecticut police said.
The rally echoed a spate of pro-Palestinian demonstrations unfolding across other college campuses.
Tensions have escalated at many US universities since the October 7 terror attack on Israel by Hamas, in which about 1,200 people were killed, and Israel’s subsequent war on Hamas in Gaza, which has since killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
Live updates: The latest on the Columbia University protests
At Yale, “Approximately 45 people refused to leave and were charged by Yale officers with Criminal Trespass in the 1st Degree, a misdemeanor,” New Haven police said in a statement. “They were transported to a Yale Police facility where they were processed and released.”
Following that wave of arrests, “a group of about 200 protesters returned” to block an intersection, New Haven police said late Monday morning.
At about 5 p.m., protesters were told to leave as police were ready to call the gathering an unlawful assembly. Protest organizers asked the group to disperse, and most returned to campus to continue their demonstration. The road was reopened, and CNN did not witness anyone being taken into custody.
Yale University’s police department had “issued summonses to 47 students” after repeated requests to leave Hewitt Quadrangle, where protesters “advocating for Yale’s divestment from military weapons manufacturers converged,” the school said.
“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 said.
Protesters at Yale had been warned twice before the arrests – once at 11 p.m. Sunday and again before 7 a.m. Monday, the university’s police chief told the Yale Daily News.
Journalists from the publication were also threatened with arrest if they did not move from the plaza, the independent campus newspaper said.
Despite the warnings from police, many protesters refused to leave. Some locked arms around a flagpole and sang, “We Shall Not Be Moved” as officers began arrests, according to footage provided to CNN by Yale graduate and independent journalist Thomas Birmingham.
About 75 miles away in New York, Columbia University officials announced all classes would be virtual on Monday ahead of Passover, a major Jewish holiday set to begin Monday evening.
Columbia has been the site of multiple protests denouncing Israel’s handling of its war in Gaza. And pro-Palestinian students at Boston’s Emerson College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have set up encampments in solidarity with protesters at Columbia University, according to The Boston Globe.
Columbia’s decision to have classes online only Monday was made to “deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps,” university President Minouche Shafik said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Sarah Dewberry and Devon Sayers contributed to this report
