Exclusive | Jewish student claims he was blocked from part of Yale campus, called scum by protesters

Pro-Palestinian students at Yale pitched a short-lived encampment on Tuesday night — and formed a human chain that kept their Jewish peers from seeing what they were up to, according to a viral social media video.Yale senior Netanel Crispe alleged that the protest was far from peaceful.“I was shouted at quite a lot,” he told The Post.“I had people shoving me.

I had people putting their flashlights in my eyes to try to keep me away.I was physically barred and blocked, at times followed and surrounded and pushed and shoved.”Crispe said his exchange with agitators who gathered on Tuesday night to protest an upcoming speech by Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir culminated in him being physically blocked from accessing parts of the campus quad.

Some of the interaction was caught on a video that he posted on X on Wednesday and has attracted 7.6 million views.“There was one protester specifically who called us scum,” Crispe, who showed up to the rally with a couple of his friends, alleged.In a video posted to social media, a protester tells him “you people” are “trying to victimize yourselves.” When Crispe asks who “us people” are, the man says, “You’re Israelis, bro, you’re Zionists”Though the roughly 200 student protesters promised an overnight encampment — they screamed “We’re here, and we’re staying the night” on a megaphone — they ultimately dispersed before 11:30 p.m., following a final warning from the university, according to the Yale Daily News,.Crispe, a 22-year-old who has both Israeli and American citizenship, grew up in Danby, Vermont.

He believes the fact that he is visibly Jewish — he wears a yarmulke every day — caused the protesters to be so hostile.“They created this human chain which they’ve used as a tactic in the past to keep Jewish students out,” he said.His experience echoes that of some Jewish students at Columbia, who also faced a human chain last spring when they attempted to ent...