America’s most prestigious universities continue to generate headlines related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Yale University students walked out of class on Tuesday, insisting that the school publicly call for a cease-fire in Gaza, according to the Yale Daily News.
Dubbed the “There is No Back To School in Gaza” walkout, roughly 200 students reportedly ditched their first day of spring classes and stood outside in cold, snowy weather.
“The event featured speeches by students and professors as well as chants from the crowd denouncing Yale’s ‘complicity in genocide and war crimes,’” Yale Daily News reporters Nora Moses and Hudson Warm wrote.
An Instagram post by Yalies4Palestine and Yale Law Students for Justice in Palestine said, “As Yale students return to campus, we are walking out of classes, recognizing that there is no back-to-school in Gaza… there will be no business as usual as long as Gaza is under siege.” It was used to promote the event, according to the paper.
“The protest grew in size after noon, and students stood with flags and posters. One sign read ‘Demands’ with a list of points, including ‘Call for Ceasefire Now,’ ‘Fund Palestine Studies’ and ‘Defund Genocide-Denying Programming and Partnerships.’ Chants included ‘Down, down, down with occupation; up, up, up with liberation,’ ‘From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime’ and ‘Apartheid kills; Yale pays the bills,’” Moses and Warm wrote.
The Yale walkout comes after months of rising antisemitism on college campuses across the U.S. in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks. Attention on the issue spiked late last year as the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania testified before Congress regarding antisemitism on their campuses.
When facing questions from House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., none of the three would state that calling for the genocide of Jewish people infringed on their universities’ rules against harassment or bullying.
Both Harvard President Claudine Gay and Penn President Liz Magill stepped down from their positions following their testimony, although Gay’s departure came amid a separate plagiarism scandal after Harvard backed her following her House hearing.
Last year, Yale Daily News, the independent student newspaper and oldest college daily in the country, retracted editor’s notes that targeted a pair of recent pro-Israel columns after a huge backlash. The editor’s notes took issue with statements in both pieces that “Hamas raped women,” calling them “unsubstantiated claims.”
The Anti-Defamation League announced a new program for ranking universities on how they respond to antisemitism incidents earlier this month.
The organization will release the new annual “report card” each spring. The ADL says the report card will offer “a comprehensive tool and comparative ranking to evaluate how colleges and universities are taking action to combat anti-Jewish hate on their campuses.”
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Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report.
