A Jewish Yale student claimed she was jabbed in the eye with a flagpole as she attended a pro-Palestine demonstration on campus.
Sahar Tartak, a sophom*ore and editor-in-chief of the Yale Free Press, blasted her alleged attacker in a series of posts to X, formerly Twitter, after attending the protest Saturday night.
'Tonight at Yale, I was assaulted by a student today at an anti-Israel protest. He stabbed me in the eye with a Palestinian flag,' wrote Tartak, whose profile describes her as a 'proud Jew.'
'Now I'm in the hospital. This is what happens when visibly Jewish students try to attend and document these rallies.'
Accompanying the accusation was a photo of the alleged assailant, whose face was partially obscured by a keffiyeh.
Sahar Tartak, a sophom*ore at Yale University, accused another student of poking her in the eye with a Palestinian flag during Saturday night's protests
Tartak provided a photo of her accused attacker, whose face was partially obscured by a keffiyeh
The sophom*ore claimed in subsequent posts that other students formed a 'human blockade' around her
Tartak claimed she was singled out for wearing Hasidic attire associated with an ultra-Orthodox sect of Judaism.
The sophom*ore told the New York Post that she 'tried to report the assault to campus police, but they told her there was nothing they could do.' She was discharged from the hospital without reporting the incident to police.
A string of social media posts documented Tartak's confrontations with pro-Palestine protesters. She included several videos of fellow students linking their arms and walking in a circle around her, chanting.
Tartak described them as a 'human blockade' and accused them of pinning her against a wall.
'One of many videos of a human blockade that did not let me move around at last night's violent protest,' she captioned one clip.
'This is me standing in between protestors and the wall. organizers told protestors to get closer to the wall. "Come closer," they beckoned, waving the mob in my direction.'
In the video, another student urges the protesters to move in, telling Tartak they are trying to create a path for her to leave.
However, she accuses theorganizers of directing the other students to 'knock into (her).'
Tartak further asserted that the protesters blockaded her to keep her from 'running after my assaulter.'
'Instead of helping me find him swiftly, one organizer told me: "I want you to think about what do you really want to get out of this,"' she wrote.
She alleged she was singled out for wearing attire associated with the Hasidic Jewish sect
Tartak further asserted that protestors stepped in front of her to prevent her from confronting her assailant
Students have been protesting in Yale'sBeinecke Plaza since Friday. The demonstrations came in response to an attempt to remove an encampment from the grounds of Columbia University
The Yale student body has been protesting for months to pressure the university into divesting its endowment from weapons manufacturers in the Middle East
In another video, the sophom*ore filmed her confrontation with said organizer.
'I'd like to remove the person from the rally who hit me in the eye with the flag,' she says frantically while recording the other student, who wears a red keffiyeh around her neck.
'All of us want this rally to be peaceful, and we don't want anyone to be injured,' the student responds. 'I just need to ask you a few more questions.'
Tartak then accuses the woman of 'stalling,' claiming she feels 'uncomfortable.'
Yale students have been setting up tents in Beinecke Plaza since Friday. The demonstrations came as a direct response to attempts to remove a similar campsite at Columbia University.
So far, no arrests have been made, unlike at Columbia, where a police spokesperson confirmed that more than 100 protesters had been taken into custody.
Most of those arrested were charged with resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration.
The Yale student body has been protesting for months to pressure the university into divesting its endowment from weapons manufacturers amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
These efforts have only ramped up over the past few weeks amid the war in Gaza that has seen more than 30,000 Palestinian civilians killed.
Speaking to the Jerusalem Post, Tartak said she urged police to disband the encampment, but was told they needed authorization to do so.
'These students are violating every policy in the books; they should have been disbanded immediately,' the sophom*ore told the publication.
'These students have taken over campus, and it’s an intimidation tactic.'
On Sunday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates issued a statement.
'While every American has the right to peaceful protect, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,' he said.
'And echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organizations, especially in the wake of the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, is despicable. We condemn these statements in the strongest terms.'
