Yalies4Palestine

Background

Yalies4Palestine is a student group with Yale University and a chapter of National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel advocacy group that encourages student activism on college campuses. ³ The earliest social media posts for Yalies4Palestine are from May 2021 but the group posted few statements and events until October 9, 2023. ³

The National SJP organization has claimed that the “struggle for a free Palestine is interconnected with the struggle for Black liberation, for gender-based and sexual freedom, and for a livable and sustainable planet.” ⁴ The national SJP group has provided support to roughly 350 “Palestine solidarity” chapters across the United States, and has been accused of promoting language and activities that have created an “environment hostile to Jews.” ⁵

National SJP requires its chapters to affirm a set of “core principles” including “anti-Zionism, anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-normalization.” It holds an annual conference and publishes newsletters quarterly. ⁶

Activism Following October 7, 2023 Attacks

On Oct. 7, 2023, the terrorist organization Hamas launched an attack against the State of Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people while taking more than 200 hostages back into Gaza. Following the attack, anti-Israel activists protested the Israeli military response and the United States’s providing of military aid for Israel. ⁷

Two days later, on October 9, 2023, Yalies4Palestine issued a statement of support, claiming “Yalies4Palestine stands in unwavering support of the Palestinian people’s right to resist colonial oppression. We hold the Israeli Zionist regime responsible for the unfolding violence and denounce the Israeli occupation, apartheid system, and its military rule.” ¹

The statement by Yalies4Palestine further claimed, “Palestinians made history this Saturday morning when they broke down the wall which has imprisoned Gaza for 17 years…[w]e stand with all colonized people fighting for their liberation from Palestine to Armenia, to Kashmir, to Turtle Island, and beyond.” ^{8 9}

Also on October 22, the group organized an “All Out for Palestine!” event that same day on the Yale campus outside the New Haven City Hall commemorating Indigenous People’s Day while further claiming their “solidarity with Palestinian resistance against colonial oppression” while asking for support from the Yale University administration. ¹⁰

In October 2022, Yalies4Palestine was one of several groups hosting a “A Rally for Palestine” on at the New Haven Green on the Yale campus to protest what it claimed was “U.S. sponsored genocide in Gaza.” Additional groups that hosted the rally rally included chapters of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) UCONN branch. ¹¹

In February 2024, Yalies4Palestine, Yale Genocide Studies Program, and Yale Law Students for Justice in Palestine sent a letter to the President of Yale and the University’s Committees on Corporate Responsibility demanding the University divest from Israel and to “end our financial and moral complicity in genocide.” ¹²

In April 2024, Yalies4Palestine launched a hunger strike demanding that Yale divest from weapons manufacturing for the State of Israel. The hunger strike lasted 8 days. ¹³

On April 19, 2024, student activists from Yalies4Palestine, Yale Jews for Ceasefire, and the Yale Law Students for Justice in Palestine took over Yale’s Beinecke Plaza for three days in an “Occupy Beinecke” protest. ¹⁴ Approximately 47 protestors were arrested. ¹⁵ On April 28, protestors set up a second encampment they called a “liberated zone” after police cleared the Beinecke Plaza encampment, ¹⁶ which was cleared on April 30 by Yale and New Haven police officers. ¹⁷

On September 12, 2024, Yalies4Palestine gathered for a pro-Palestinian vigil that coincided with a national day of action organized by the National SJP. ¹⁸

Funding

WESPAC Foundation is the fiscal sponsor for National Students for Justice in Palestine. ¹⁹

A study by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy claimed that the National SJP is has received funding from organizations accused of providing financial support for the terror group Hamas. Such organizations listed by the study include WESPAC Foundation, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Americans for Justice in Palestine (AJP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). ²⁰ As a fiscally sponsored project, National SJP is not required to disclose its finances. According to U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), “These are organizations that get dark money, and they use our IRS structure, whether it’s a 501(c)(3) or (4) or other parts of the IRS Code to get around taxes and then use this for political purposes.” ⁵