Yale dance group promotes fundraiser for ‘Palestinian anarchist fighters' on stage projection screen

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A Yale dance group promoted pro-anarchy Palestinian fundraisers during at least two performances over the weekend.

Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Yale included a QR code labeled "Support Palestine" on its on-stage projection screen next to the QR code for the show’s program that directed audience members to an Instagram post on the account @desolasol.colectiva, which read "Collection of resources to aid Palestine," Yale Daily News reported. 

The next slide listed donation information for four groups: the Middle East Children’s Alliance, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Gaza Mutual Aid Collective, while the third slide included a graphic alongside a title reading "Support Palestinian anarchist fighters," as well as a Venmo handle that Yale Daily News reported no longer exists. 

The post also tagged @abolishtheusa, which posts content in support of Fauda and describes itself as an "anarchist movement in Palestine" that associates with Hamas. A Fauda member in an interview described the organization as one of "15 anti-Zionist resistance groups in Palestine," which includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Kitab al-Aqsa, according to the account. 

(The co-presidents of Ballet Folklórico sent an email to members of the group on Monday that addressed the decision to include the QR code, calling it a "grave error.")

"All resistance groups are together and follow the same goal," a post by a Fauda member on the account read. "We should not divide them. Israel wants to divide between the left and groups like H***s and use this division for its own benefit. So we must be alert and not play in the enemy's playground."

In the early morning hours of October 7, Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing 1,400 Israelis and taking 240 people, including Americans, hostage inside the Gaza Strip. Since then, Israel and Hamas have been at war. 

The co-presidents of Ballet Folklórico sent an email to members of the group on Monday that addressed the decision to include the QR code hours before the first show "without consulting the board or membership," according to Yale Daily News. They said the decision was a "substantial oversight" and apologized to members of the dance group who were "unwillingly and unknowingly aligned" with the statements.

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"We realize this post brought considerable damage to the Jewish community," Ballet Folklórico’s four co-presidents wrote in the email. "We should have been more prudent with our choice of platform and should have looked beyond the resources provided on the second slide and noted the damaging material on the third."

"We would also like to emphasize that we condemn antisemitism as well as any form of violence committed against any community," the message said. "Our rash decision did not appropriately reflect the values we wish to represent. Although we stand behind efforts to aid and bring attention to this crisis, linking this post was a grave error."

College campuses have become ground zero for debate about the Israel-Hamas war in recent weeks. (Left: Craig Warga/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Circle:(Photo by Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images))

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The group's leaders also suggested "preventive measures" for members’ safety, which included making their social media accounts private and untagging the group from any posts. A Yale student and co-editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News Magazine, Gavin Guerrette, attended one of the shows where he said an individual came out before the show to promote "direct relief to Palestinian families" and described the post linked in the QR code.  

"All I’d be willing to say here is that it was an attempt to provide information to people and an attempt to provide a means of supporting people who they view to be in a humanitarian crisis," Guerrette told the Yale Daily News. "If incidentally, they linked to something which is, quote unquote, ‘loosely affiliated’ with Hamas, I don’t think it’s by any direct malicious effort."

College campuses have become ground zero for debate about the Israel-Hamas war in recent weeks. The U.S. has seen a spike in antisemitism and university leaders are fielding requests from donors, the Biden administration, as well as top Israeli officials, to address the rhetoric directed toward the Jewish community.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators attend a protest at Columbia University in New York City, New York on Thursday, October 12, 2023.   (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

Last week, Columbia University and Brandeis University both suspended their campus' chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) over its actions and statements in support of Hamas, the terrorist group responsible for the October 7 attack on Israel. SJP has been at the forefront of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses across the country, where they often chant the controversial phrase "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." 

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In other examples of on-campus antisemitism, students at New York University and across New York City have been caught on camera tearing down posters of kidnapped Israeli hostages, and Cornell University's Jewish population faced violent online threats that prompted an FBI investigation.

Fox News Digital reached out to Yale for additional comment, but did not immediately hear back. 

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