Adam Walker, Contributing Photographer

Hundreds of Yale students and New Haven community members gathered on Cross Campus last Friday afternoon to protest the University’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

Event organizers demanded that the University denounce recent anti-Palestinian hate speech, condemn Israel’s invasion of Gaza and divest from all arms manufacturers and defense contractors, in addition to pressuring Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy to lobby for an immediate ceasefire. The gathering, organized by Yalies4Palestine, featured a reading of the student group’s statement that expressed “solidarity with indigenous people of Palestine” and criticized the administration’s response to the “ever-increasing violence” committed by Israeli forces.

Since the start of its retaliatory attacks on Gaza last month, Israel has killed at least 10,000 Palestinians as of Nov. 6, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas. Israel’s attacks come after Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, killing at least 1,400 Israelis. On Oct. 28, nearly all phone and Internet services went out in Gaza, leaving family members and humanitarian organizations stranded. Amid the intensifying humanitarian crisis in Gaza, United Nations officials officially characterized Israel’s actions as “collective punishment” in violation of international law.

The protest comes over three weeks after University President Peter Salovey issued an Oct. 10 statement titled “War in the Middle East,” condemning Hamas’s attacks on civilians in Israel. On Friday — the day of the protest — Salovey released another statement titled “President’s remarks on compassion and civility.” In the statement, Salovey addressed antisemitism, Islamophobia and hatred toward Palestinians and Israelis as “emphatically” against the University’s values and principles and urged University members to act with “compassion and civility” toward each other. 

Yalies4Palestine released its statement on the University’s response to the conflict on Oct. 17, and it has since garnered thousands of signatures from students, professors and alumni. The protest’s purpose was to deliver the statement to Yale’s administration.

“We are here together to fight against hatred,” one of the event organizers said at the start. “We’re fighting against slaughter, genocide, dehumanization and specifically against the efforts to make some people count and other people … not count.”

The statement released by Yalies4Palestine noted that Yale, under its “guise of political neutrality,” did not acknowledge injustices perpetrated by the Israeli government. The statement also argued that the University was complicit in the humanitarian crisis through its investment in American defense contractors, such as Raytheon, which manufactured weapons that America has supplied to the Israeli military. It also pointed to the absence of “[public] support” for faculty and students who have spoken out against Israel’s invasion, which it said has in turn cultivated a “campus climate that is openly hostile towards Palestinian and other racialized students.”

Attendees were urged not to engage with any possible counter-protesters. Speakers at the event did not disclose their names.

One of the event speakers shared their grievances over the University’s “double standard” of free speech, contrasting the administration’s responses to recent Islamophobic threats on campus and pro-Palestine statements. They recounted how chalk-written statements across campus, such as “Free Palestine,” were promptly erased overnight. They added that posters placed around campus featuring the Palestinian flag were removed within a span of 24 hours.

The speaker referred to the Oct. 9 incident at Grace Hopper College, in which a student scrawled a message reading “Death to Palestine” — and, later, people added Hebrew phrases reading “children of whores” and “they are pussies” — on a whiteboard outside a suite. In her email response to the incident, Head of College Julia Adams restated the importance of “academic freedom and the expression of views and dissent.”

According to the same event speaker, the administration had dismissed the incident as a political statement.

“Yale faculty assured us that these were political sentiments and that these individuals are being monitored so that there was nothing to be concerned about,” the speaker said. “Even at esteemed institutions that pride themselves on such liberal free speech policies, Yale’s responses are proof that only Palestine is the exception to activism and free speech.”

In his Friday statement, Salovey addressed the rising rates of discord on college campuses, noting that “Yale is not immune” and called on University members to remain committed to civil discourse and mutual respect.

In an interview with the News the same day, Salovey said that “we need to use our own voices” to stand against antisemitic or Islamophobic forms of expression. He added that although the University’s free expression policy protects many forms of expression on campus, there are some forms that it will not tolerate.

“We tolerate at Yale an awful lot of expression,” Salovey told the News. “But there are some forms of speech that are not protected by our policies. And that’s really important. That is speech designed to harass. That is speech designed to directly threaten an individual’s safety. That is speech designed to incite violence. It’s not always easy to make that call about which side of the line speech is on, but there is a line, and we will do our best to enforce that line.” 

Another speaker demanded that Yale apply the principles of its 2018 ethical investing policy to its current portfolio, claiming that “our tax dollars, our tuition dollars” are currently “entangled” with the production of weapons of war. They noted that more than half the annual Defense Department budget is earmarked for private contracts.

Because the Investments Office does not publicly disclose its holdings, it remains unclear whether Yale currently holds or previously held investments in weapons retailers or manufacturers. Per its investment  policy, the University is not permitted to invest in public-facing weapons retailers, but the policy distinguishes between these sellers and weapons manufacturers, which are permitted.

In last week’s email to the News, Salovey wrote that the University’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility — composed of alumni, faculty and students — is currently in talks to determine whether it should revisit Yale’s current investing policy toward weapons retailers and manufacturers under its ethical investment framework. According to ACIR chair Heather Tookes, a finance professor and deputy dean for faculty at the School of Management, the review began last year following a presentation to the ACIR by Yale’s chapter of Students Demand Action.

CEOs of Raytheon, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin have acknowledged recent profits from supplying weapons to Israel. Lockheed Martin’s stock grew by 12 percent in the 20-day period between Oct. 6 and Oct. 26. 

The News has not been able to independently verify the value of Yale’s shares in arms manufacturers. According to its August 2023 SEC filings, the University owns 6,564 shares in the S&P index — a stock performance tracker that includes defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. However, most of the University’s holdings are in illiquid, alternate assets.

“Every conflict affects us right here,” the event speaker said. “If we can be courageous in our commitment to changing this institution, then our administrators and our Corporation can be courageous in honoring the values of this community.”

The protest concluded with a march down Wall Street and part of Prospect Street to deliver the message to the offices of the Yale administration. The offices have been located at Sheffield Strathcona Hall since 2018, when construction at the Schwarzman Center required Salovey and Kimberly Goff-Crews, secretary and vice president for university life, to relocate from Woodbridge Hall. Students chanted “Free Palestine” and “Yale, Yale you can’t hide, you’re enabling genocide” as they walked. 

Yalies4Palestine was founded in 2019.

Correction, Nov. 6: This article’s original subheading incorrectly stated that Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza has been ongoing for nearly a month. A sentence in the article also included an outdated number of killed Palestinians. The subhead and sentence have since been amended.