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Violent clashes broke out on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles early on Wednesday morning when counter-demonstrators attacked a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, hours after New York City police cleared pro-Palestinian protesters out of an academic building that had been taken over at Columbia University.
Aerial footage showed people wielding sticks or poles to attack wooden boards being held up as a makeshift barricade to protect pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA, some holding placards or umbrellas. At least one firework was thrown into the camp.
Administrators at the university called in law enforcement officers to try to stem the violence, which is the worst since counter-protesters who support Israel set up a rival protest area near the pro-Palestinian encampment.
“Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support,” Mary Osako, a vice-chancellor at the university , said. “The fire department and medical personnel are on the scene. We are sickened by this senseless violence and it must end.”
Writing on X, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, condemned the violence as “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable”. LA police said in a post on X: “At the request of UCLA, due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment on their campus, the LAPD is responding to assist UCLA PD, and other law enforcement agencies, to restore order and maintain public safety.”
Some of the counter-protesters began to leave the area at about 1.40am, after police in riot gear arrived and formed a line near the camp, the LA Times reported. But officers did not immediately break up the two sets of protesters, and clashes continued. Hours later, broadcast footage showed a police cordon slowly clearing a central quad beside the encampment.
Ananya Roy, a geography professor at UCLA , condemned the university over its lack of response to the counter-protesters. “It gives people impunity to come to our campus as a rampaging mob,” she told the LA Times. “The word is out they can do this repeatedly and get away with it. I am ashamed of my university.”
Katy Yaroslavsky, a Los Angeles councilwoman whose district includes UCLA, posted on X: “Everyone has a right to free speech and protest but the situation on UCLA’s campus is out of control and is no longer safe.”
The clashes began in the early hours of Wednesday, shortly after Gene Block, the UCLA chancellor, said the campus’s pro-Palestine encampment was “unlawful”, adding that students who remained in it would face disciplinary action. The 7 October attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza and the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory have unleashed the biggest outpouring of US student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020.
Late on Tuesday, New York City police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed-up in an academic building on Columbia University campus in New York and removed a protest encampment that the Ivy League school had sought to dismantle for nearly two weeks.
Live video images showed police in riot gear marching on the campus in upper Manhattan, the focal point of the nationwide student protests. Officers used an armoured vehicle with a bridging mechanism to gain entry to the second floor of the building. Officers said they used flash-bangs to disperse the crowd but denied using teargas as part of the operation. Officers were seen leading protesters handcuffed with zip-ties to a line of police buses waiting outside campus gates.
The police operation, which was largely over within a couple of hours, follows nearly two weeks of tensions, with pro-Palestinian protesters at the university ignoring an ultimatum on Monday to abandon their encampment or risk suspension.
Columbia University officials had earlier threatened academic expulsion of the students who had seized Hamilton Hall, an eight-storey neoclassical building blocked by protesters who linked arms to form a barricade and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans.
The university said on Tuesday it had asked police to enter the campus to “restore safety and order to our community”.
Aerial footage showed people wielding sticks or poles to attack wooden boards being held up as a makeshift barricade to protect pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA, some holding placards or umbrellas. At least one firework was thrown into the camp.
Administrators at the university called in law enforcement officers to try to stem the violence, which is the worst since counter-protesters who support Israel set up a rival protest area near the pro-Palestinian encampment.
“Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support,” Mary Osako, a vice-chancellor at the university , said. “The fire department and medical personnel are on the scene. We are sickened by this senseless violence and it must end.”
Writing on X, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, condemned the violence as “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable”. LA police said in a post on X: “At the request of UCLA, due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment on their campus, the LAPD is responding to assist UCLA PD, and other law enforcement agencies, to restore order and maintain public safety.”
Some of the counter-protesters began to leave the area at about 1.40am, after police in riot gear arrived and formed a line near the camp, the LA Times reported. But officers did not immediately break up the two sets of protesters, and clashes continued. Hours later, broadcast footage showed a police cordon slowly clearing a central quad beside the encampment.
Ananya Roy, a geography professor at UCLA , condemned the university over its lack of response to the counter-protesters. “It gives people impunity to come to our campus as a rampaging mob,” she told the LA Times. “The word is out they can do this repeatedly and get away with it. I am ashamed of my university.”
Katy Yaroslavsky, a Los Angeles councilwoman whose district includes UCLA, posted on X: “Everyone has a right to free speech and protest but the situation on UCLA’s campus is out of control and is no longer safe.”
The clashes began in the early hours of Wednesday, shortly after Gene Block, the UCLA chancellor, said the campus’s pro-Palestine encampment was “unlawful”, adding that students who remained in it would face disciplinary action. The 7 October attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza and the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Palestinian territory have unleashed the biggest outpouring of US student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020.
Late on Tuesday, New York City police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed-up in an academic building on Columbia University campus in New York and removed a protest encampment that the Ivy League school had sought to dismantle for nearly two weeks.
Live video images showed police in riot gear marching on the campus in upper Manhattan, the focal point of the nationwide student protests. Officers used an armoured vehicle with a bridging mechanism to gain entry to the second floor of the building. Officers said they used flash-bangs to disperse the crowd but denied using teargas as part of the operation. Officers were seen leading protesters handcuffed with zip-ties to a line of police buses waiting outside campus gates.
The police operation, which was largely over within a couple of hours, follows nearly two weeks of tensions, with pro-Palestinian protesters at the university ignoring an ultimatum on Monday to abandon their encampment or risk suspension.
Columbia University officials had earlier threatened academic expulsion of the students who had seized Hamilton Hall, an eight-storey neoclassical building blocked by protesters who linked arms to form a barricade and chanted pro-Palestinian slogans.
The university said on Tuesday it had asked police to enter the campus to “restore safety and order to our community”.
