Dept of Ed investigating Yale after several Jewish students say they were denied entrance to event
The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Yale University after several Jewish students were reportedly denied entrance into a panel discussing the Israel and Hamas war sponsored by the school.
The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Yale University after several Jewish students were reportedly denied entrance into a panel discussing the Israel and Hamas war sponsored by the school.
According to a complaint from the Defense of Freedom Institute (DFI), several academic departments at Yale sponsored a November 6, 2023, panel, titled “Gaza Under Siege – Can you Hear Us Now?: Research And The Temporalities Of War A Yale Ethnography Hub Series.” A spokesperson for DFI confirmed to Campus Reform that the Department of Education notified them that an investigation into the New Haven, Connecticut institution is being opened based on its complaint.
The event, according to DFI, was structured as a panel discussion regarding the Israel-Hamas war and was open to any member of the Yale community who had a university ID card.
Several Jewish students, including Sahar Tartak and Netanel Crispe, were allegedly denied entry to the panel event, according to the complaint, which states that some of the Jewish students denied entry were ”handing out flyers to provide historical context surrounding the Israel-Hamas war just prior to the commencement of the panel.”
Others denied entry were reportedly wearing Jewish paraphernalia, the complaint states.
Organizers of the event allegedly selectively enforced a pre-registration requirement, which allowed non-Jewish and non-registered individuals to be allowed entry, DFI wrote.
Campus Reform initially reported on the incident, where Tartak said she and other friends were forced to listen to the event through a door.
”Today, my friends and I sat outside of an anti-Israel event at Yale (we weren’t let in), listening. Some quotes: ‘Israel cannot remain the state of the Jewish people.’ ‘[Hamas is] a resistance group’ ‘[Israel is] trying to inflict as much harm, damage, and death as possible,’” Tartak wrote on X.
Yale University responded to criticism after the event, stating that pre-registration was a requirement to attend “[o]ne of several educational events on campus about the HamasIsrael war [that] took place on Monday, Nov. 6.”
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A flyer for the event on Yale University’s website doesn’t mention a registration requirement and states “Bring your Yale ID to enter.” A registration form displayed on the webpage also doesn’t list it as a requirement to attend the event.
Co-sponsors of the event include Yale’s Department of American Studies, Department of Anthropology, Program on Ethnicity, Race & Migration, Department of Religious Studies, Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Center For Middle East Studies, Yale Ethnography Hub, The Edward J. And Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund. Yalies4Palestine and Black Feminist were also co-sponsors.
Tartak made headlines last fall after the Yale Daily News issued a “correction” to an opinion piece she wrote, which stated that the author’s claims that Hamas beheaded and raped individuals during the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack were “unsubstantiated.”
Yale Daily News’ editor-in-chief Anika Arora Seth went on to eventually retract the correction, writing, “It was never the News’ intention to minimize the brutality of Hamas’ attack against Israel.”
Campus Reform reached out to Yale for comment.