Anti-Israel protesters hurl bottles, block car as Ben Gvir visits Yale group
Hundreds gather outside off-campus building as Jewish group hosts far-right minister, hours after university sanctions Yalies4Palestine over encampment; none hurt
Approximately 200 anti-Israel protesters confronted visiting National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir near Yale University Wednesday night, throwing bottles and chanting slogans against the far-right politician.
The protest outside an event where Ben Gvir was due to speak Wednesday marked the latest in a series of demonstrations hounding the Otzma Yehudit party leader, who is making his first-ever official visit to the US.
Video posted on social media of the protest showed members of the crowd throwing water bottles and trying to block vehicles carrying the far-right politician and his staff as they arrived to speak to Jewish group Shabtai near the Ivy League campus.
Ben Gvir’s office said nobody was hurt.
It said the minister made a V sign toward the protesters, whom news reports described as a mix of Yale activists, Connecticut Palestinians, sympathetic Middle Easterners and anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews.
Members of the crowd wore masks or keffiyehs, the traditional scarf used by Palestinians as a national symbol, carried signs accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide, and chanted anti-Israel slogans.
BREAKING: Pro-Hamas protesters attempted to attack the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir at Yale University pic.twitter.com/dw1Zo3Ya84
— The Uri (@uricohenisrael) April 24, 2025
A few Israeli-born Jews who oppose Ben-Gvir also came early on in the protest, the New Haven Register reported, but opted to leave when other protesters began chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which many interpret as a call for the destruction of Israel.
“We oppose anything that he represents,” Israeli-born Connecticut resident Shaul Yogev told the Register of Ben Gvir, who has been widely shunned as an extremist former follower of the late Meir Kahane. “We see him as a fascist terrorist. He doesn’t represent anything that Judaism represents. I think it’s disgusting” that he’s speaking in New Haven, Yogev said.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, who lives a few blocks away from the event venue, came to the scene shortly after Ben Gvir arrived, according to the news outlet. He told reporters he wanted to “make sure those on the scene make the right decisions to keep people safe.”
There were no reports of arrests.
Ben Gvir was hosted by Shabtai, a Jewish group that is not formally affiliated with Yale but draws its membership from students and alumni of the university.
At least two Shabtai members resigned over director Rabbi Shmully Hecht’s decision to host Ben Gvir, whose record includes extremist rhetoric and convictions for crimes including providing support to a terror organization.
Hecht founded the organization in 1996 along with now-Sen. Cory Booker and Jewish academics Ben Karp, Michael Alexander and Noah Feldman.
Mitchell Dubin, a member of Shabtai, said in a statement that hosting Ben Gvir is not an act of endorsement.
“Shabtai does not seek to legitimize or delegitimize 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,” the statement reads.
Yale cracks down on protesters
The appearance came hours after Yale pulled its recognition of anti-Israel student group Yalies4Palestine after activists on campus set up a protest encampment against Ben Gvir’s visit to the area.
UNIVERSITY | Around 200 protesters erected eight tents Tuesday night on Beinecke Plaza to protest an upcoming talk by far-right Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.https://t.co/2zjsXMF3Dp
— Yale Daily News (@yaledailynews) April 23, 2025
Yale said in a statement that the Tuesday night protest, which was organized by an unregistered group but backed by Yalies4Palestine, had been unauthorized and violated campus protest policies.
The action against the protesters came as the Trump administration has demanded far-reaching changes it says are designed to combat antisemitism and anti-Israel activism at leading colleges around the US, including other Ivy League universities such as Columbia, Harvard and Cornell.
Ben Gvir is slated to attend another event hosted by Shabtai in New York City on Thursday. He will remain in the city before visiting Washington, DC, early next week.
The visit marks his first official trip to the US as a representative of the Israeli government, a reflection of the Trump administration’s embrace of far-right groups.
He began the trip in Florida, where he visited US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, although Trump was not present.
Israelis who oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are also protesting Ben Gvir’s visit. The expat protest group UnXeptable posted a video of activists hassling Ben Gvir as he arrived in New York on Wednesday before the visit to Yale.
The Times of Israel Community.