At Friday's encampment and protest in Beinecke Plaza. Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters gathered in Yale’s Beinecke Plaza Friday night, and — unlike on Columbia’s campus the day before — none were arrested, police backed down, and the university let tenters stay put.
The protest marked the latest Yale student action to try to press the university to divest its endowment from weapons manufacturers amidst Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Friday’s rally — which included two dozen tents and more than 500 attendees — took place outside of the Yale Schwarzman Center at the same time that members of the Yale Corporation gathered inside the building for a farewell dinner for the soon-to-retire university president, Peter Salovey.
"Books Not Bombs" bookshelf. 
On Wall St. by Beinecke Plaza at around 10:30 Friday night. For much of the day, student protest organizers prepared for a confrontation with Yale police at 11 p.m., when campus law enforcement were expected to clear the plaza and arrest anyone who resisted.
Instead, at 11:40 p.m., the close to 50 uniformed Yale and New Haven police officers, which included six members of New Haven’s crowd control team, stationed in and around the Schwarzman Center left the area. The university instead allowed protesters to sleep through the night in the plaza.
The protest, which lasted through much of the day, was one of the largest at Yale in recent memory.
Friday’s action was part of a weeklong series of protests in front of the Schwarzman Center by pro-Palestine organizers who want Yale’s endowment to divest from weapons manufacturers.
According to a press release from organizers, they decided to build an encampment of 24 tents outside of Schwarzman Center to promote that aim.
They also sought to stand in solidarity with the 108 students at Columbia University in New York City who were arrested on Thursday when that school’s president ordered the New York Police Department to clear out a similar campus encampment and to arrest protesting students for trespassing.
“Hey hey, ho ho, there’s blood on your portfolio,” hundreds of protesters chanted late into the night in Beinecke Plaza on Friday.
“Columbia, we are with you!” they cheered. Along with, “Free free Palestine!” and “What do we tell the trustees? If there’s no justice, there’s no peace!” and “Resistance is justified, when people are occupied! Resistance is justified, when people face genocide!“
The Yale Corporation, which is the highest body of the university, had gathered inside the Schwarzman Center Friday night to celebrate Salovey’s decade-long tenure as president. The Corporation will gather for its final meeting of the 2024 – 2025 academic year on Saturday, when they are expected to choose Salovey’s successor.
In addition to the Yale officers, a Mobile Incident Command Post, which is more colloquially referred to as a prison bus, was present at the intersection of Grove and Prospect Street.
Yale Police only detained one student in connection with the divestment protest but later released them, according to a Yale University spokesperson.
For much of the night, Yale Police signaled that it planned to remove protesters from the plaza starting at 11 p.m. On Monday, the first day of protests this week, Yale Police issued warnings to protesters who were occupying the same space in front of the Schwarzman Center at 10:40 p.m., and the organizers decided to heed those warnings and disperse.
On Friday night, organizers made clear that they would not listen to those warnings, meaning that some protesters would be arrested.
Indeed, organizers told the Independent that at different points in the night Yale administrators, including Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis, told organizers that any Yale College seniors in the group who failed to disperse and were arrested may not be able to walk at graduation or may face other disciplinary action.
At one point Lewis and other Yale administrations offered to speak with organizers and call off arrests if they removed the tents in the plaza. Organizers refused.
Similarly, supporters of the Yale organizers from New Haven, including members of Jewish Voice for Peace, were at the protest and also signaled that they were ready to be arrested by Yale Police.
Yale police in front of Schwarzman Center's entrance. Click here to watch part of Friday night’s protest.
Thomas Breen contributed to this report.