LOS ANGELES, Jun 12 (NNN-XINHUA) – Police arrested about 25 protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Monday night, after they set up a new campus encampment in support of the Palestinians, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
“The individuals are in the process of being cited, issued 14-day stay away orders from UCLA property, and released,” said the UCLA police department in a news release.
“As a result of the unauthorised and unlawful encampments at the three locations, the group damaged the Shapiro fountain, spray-painted brick walkways, tampered with fire safety equipment, damaged patio furniture, stripped wire from electrical fixtures, and vandalised vehicles,” the news release added.
Over 100 protesters set up tents and barricades on the western end of the university’s Dickson Plaza Monday afternoon, reported Daily Bruin, the university’s student newspaper.
Protesters marched on campus carrying fake bloody mummies and body parts, while listing the names of Palestinians who have died in the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, chanting: “We will honour all our martyrs,” said the report.
Local television pictures showed that protesters dyed the water in a campus fountain red.
The demonstration was organised by the Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA. The organisation called on people to join the protest “to bear witness to over 46,000 Palestinians who have been martyred or buried under the rubble” in a post on Instagram.
Campus police and security responded to the area, and the Los Angeles Police Department later declared a tactical alert, according to local KABC television station.
Orders were issued multiple times for the protesters to disperse, and several clashes between officers and protesters broke out, reported the news outlet.
After nightfall, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters stood in front of at least 50 police officers from multiple law enforcement agencies outside Dodd Hall, a historic academic building, according to a Daily Bruin post on social media X.
Protesters outside Dodd Hall chanted, “By the thousands, by the millions, we are all Palestinians,” Daily Bruin said in another post.
Manal, a graduate student in chemistry, who did not give the last name, was quoted as saying by Daily Bruin that, the UCLA administration should listen to student activists and answer the protesters’ calls for divestment.
“I’m worried because last time it was bad – we were attacked by both the police and the Zionists,” the protester told the student newspaper, adding that, “Many of us got arrested. Many of us are vulnerable because, among us, there are undocumented students, there are international students, there are students from different minority groups.”
At 12:01 a.m. local time, police fired pepper bullets at a crowd between Bunche Hall and Perloff Hall. Crowds then dispersed in response, said the report.
This is the third campus encampment at UCLA in recent weeks. Over 200 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on May 2, as police moved to dismantle an encampment at the university. On May 23, a group of protesters briefly established a second encampment on campus before police moved in to disband the efforts.
UC’s controversial response to pro-Palestinian protests had led to a rolling strike, as academic workers at six of UC’s 10 system-wide campuses, including UCLA, walked off the job.
The strike by United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 4811, which represents 48,000 academic workers across the UC system, was ordered to pause by a judge on Friday, after UC filed a lawsuit and requested injunctive relief earlier last week, against UAW for breach of contract. UAW Local 4811 vowed in a statement that, the union is prepared to keep defending its rights in a “long fight.”– NNN-XINHUA
