Yale freshmen are more critical of Israel than China, alarming poll finds

All Yale the Xi.Incoming Yale freshmen are overwhelmingly more critical of Israel than they are of China, according to an alarming poll of new students.Almost two-thirds (63%) of the first-year students said they held a critical view of the Jewish state — almost double the 35% who said they were critical of China, according to a Yale Daily News survey of students.The number of Yalies who said they held a “very critical” opinion of Israel was an eyebrow-raising four times that of those who held the same harsh opinion of China (40% versus 10%), the poll found.At the same time, 14% of respondents were very or somewhat supportive of China, compared to just 8% who felt the same about Israel.Chinese students make up about 0.8% of the incoming freshman body, the report found.Yale’s Connecticut campus was one of hundreds across the US hit by anti-Israel protests in the wake of the attacks of Oct.7, 2023, and the Israeli military response in Gaza — with billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman even comparing the Ivy League school to Hamas.The Yale Chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine organized walkouts, rallies, and demonstrations against Israel in the weeks following the attacks by Palestinian militants.In April 2024, anti-Israel student activists initiated a hunger strike on Beinecke Plaza to pressure the Yale Corporation to divest from weapons manufacturers supplying Israel, the Connecticut Mirror reported.That same month, in the wake of the initial tent clearings at New York’s Columbia University, Yale students pitched tents on Beinecke Plaza, setting up what they called a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”A Jewish Yale student journalist was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag amid the protests.A total of 47 protesters, all but three of them students, were arrested on charges of Class A misdemeanor trespassing when Yale and New Haven police officers entered the plaza to dismantle the encampment on April 22, 2024, reported the New York Times ...