At least 47 people were arrested at Yale University on Monday during pro-Palestinian protests, as student-led demonstrations that roiled Columbia University and other campuses last week spread to the center of the school’s community in New Haven, Conn.
Demonstrators set up an encampment at the campus’s Beinecke Plaza on Friday night. The group said in a statement on social media that it was calling on the university to disclose its investments in military weapons manufacturers and to divest from those companies.
The first of the Yale students arrested today has been released and just gave a speech to the crowd, met with some of the loudest cheering I’ve heard in the last three days.
— Thomas Birmingham (@thomasbirm) April 22, 2024
47 students were arrested, according to organizers.
“For our friends, we shall not be moved,” they sing. pic.twitter.com/25yAjMLgVo
In a statement on Monday morning, Yale said it had repeatedly asked protesters to leave and warned that they could be arrested or face university discipline. The university also said it had offered the protesters audiences with leading trustees but had decided by late Sunday that negotiations were at an impasse.
According to the university, the police issued 47 summonses on Monday and said arrested students could be disciplined by Yale itself, which could impose suspensions.
“The university made the decision to arrest those individuals who would not leave the plaza with the safety and security of the entire Yale community in mind and to allow access to university facilities by all members of our community,” a university spokesperson said in a statement.
The police action at Yale came four days after more than 100 students were arrested at Columbia University in New York at an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the campus.
This is a developing story.