The violence at UCLA began when a group of pro-Israel activists showed up on campus with the intention of removing the pro-Palestine camp, reports KTLA, a TV station in Los Angeles.
The channel said that the pro-Israel side threw fireworks at the protesters and deployed “what may have been bear spray.”
BREAKING: Dozens of pro-Israel counter-protestors have started tearing down the UCLA's Gaza Solidarity Encampment while screaming "Second Nakba!", referring to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in 1948. pic.twitter.com/Y9Oj7W2l4A
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 1, 2024
Police wearing face shields formed a line but did not intervene.
The attack came on a tent encampment, where pro-Palestinian peaceful protesters erected barricades and plywood for protection — and counter-protesters tried to pull them down.
UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block warned ahead of clashes that protesters including "both members of the UCLA community and others unaffiliated with our campus" had set up a camp last week.
"Many of the demonstrators... have been peaceful in their activism," Block wrote in a letter posted on the university website on Tuesday.
"But the tactics of others have frankly been shocking and shameful. We have seen instances of violence," he said.
On Sunday, the Israeli American Council, which has denounced pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, hosted a rally at UCLA that drew thousands of people. Organizers set up a stage and a large screen near the pro-Palestinian encampment, then led prayers, hosted speakers and welcomed performers who sang Israeli pop songs.
On Monday night, another fight broke out between two groups of protesters after about 60 pro-Israel demonstrators attempted to enter the pro-Palestinian encampment. Campus police had to break up the dispute.
Wednesday clashes erupted when the Israeli American Council organized rallies across the nation similar to the one Sunday at UCLA, including events in Atlanta and Orange County, California.
People threw chairs and shoved and kicked one another. Some armed with sticks beat others. Before the police arrived, a group piled on one person who lay on the ground, kicking and beating them until the victim was pulled out.
“Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support,” Mary Osako, a senior UCLA official, told the campus newspaper the Daily Bruin.
The Los Angeles police department said on social media platform X that "officers have been deployed, and are currently on the UCLA campus, to assist in restoring order".
The force had earlier said it was responding "due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment" after the university asked for police help to quell the clashes.
Police have swept through other campuses across the US over the last two weeks, leading to confrontations and more than 1,000 arrests. In rarer instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.
Just blocks away from Columbia, at The City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate.
Video posted on social media by news reporters on the scene late Tuesday showed officers putting some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared people from the street and sidewalks. Many detained protesters were carried away on city buses that had been commandeered for the purpose.
At Washington University St. Louis, footage shows Steve Tamari, 65, at the edge of a group filming activists when several officers slammed him to the ground, beat him, and dragged him away.
Shocking footage shows several officers at Washington University St. Louis beating a professor, slamming him, and dragging his limp body.
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) April 30, 2024
SIUE history professor Steve Tamari is reportedly hospitalized with broken ribs and a broken hand.
One doctor told him he's lucky to be alive. pic.twitter.com/QSafPxVMD3
