Pro-Palestine protestors hurled bottles at far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir following his speech near Yale University last night.
The Otzma Yehudit leader addressed a meeting organised by Shabtai, a prominent Jewish society not affiliated with the college but which counts numerous Yale students among its members and advocates free speech, particular with regard to Israel.
However, his visit caused controversy, with three members of Shabtai resigning over his invitation, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
It also sparked outrage among the local pro-Palestinian movement, which only last year staged large encampments at Yale as part of a wave of protests that swept US higher education.
Footage released by Ben-Gvir’s office last night of a crowd of demonstrators chanting “free Palestine”, “f*** you Ben-Gvir” and “shame on you” as he emerged from the meeting hall, waving and throwing up v-shaped gesture usually seen as a peace sign but, in this context, believed to represent Israel’s victory.
Supporters gathered around him, brandishing an Israeli flag and waving the crowd as security officers separated them from the protestors.
Soon after he made the victory sign, activists began to hurl plastic water bottles at Ben-Gvir amid a chorus of boos.
Ben-Gvir, who holds the national security brief in the Netanyahu government, is one of the most controversial members of the current coalition.
Along with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, he is among the strongest advocates in government for the continuation of the Gaza war and expansion of Israel’s territory, including annexation of the West Bank.
Indeed, he briefly dropped out of government and called on Smotrich to do the same after the government agreed the now-defunct ceasefire with Hamas earlier this year.
Himself a resident of a West Bank settlement (considered by the UK government to be illegal), Ben-Gvir has been accused of praising Jewish terrorists and was convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terror organisation in 2007 after carrying a sign bearing the slogan “Rabbi Kahane was right: The Arab MKs are a fifth column”.
Rabbi Meir Kahane was an ultra-nationalist politician who advocated for the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and was convicted of multiple acts of terror, including his role in the 1975 attack on the Soviet mission to the UN and planning armed attacks against Palestinians.
Ben-Gvir is currently on a tour of the US, including addressing a dinner at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida which saw him greeted with a standing ovation. He is also reported to have met a number of senior Republican figures during his time in the country.
According to CNN, at least one person was detained by police at the protest, while Ben-Gvir’s office confirmed he was uninjured and in “good health”.
Shabtai member and Yale senior Michael Dubin told the outlet: “Shabtai does not seek to legitimise or delegitimise world leaders. Instead, it provides a space where ideas are interrogated with rigor, policies are challenged with integrity, and civil discourse is preserved even under strain.”
A Yale spokesperson said that it had dispersed an earlier protest set up by an “unregistered group...not affiliated with any recognised student organisation” but is yet to comment on the confrontation involving Ben-Gvir. It is not clear whether the same group was behind the later protest.
