Police confront pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA

On Monday, police at UCLA confronted pro-Palestinian protesters and arrested some of them. The protest stretched across campus and included the recitation of the names of some of those who died in Gaza.

Protesters turned the water of the Shapiro Fountain red, as seen in aerial footage from local television stations. For several hours, the demonstration was mostly peaceful. However, the situation later turned chaotic when Los Angeles police and private security guards formed a rifle line and faced protesters standing behind barricades.

On the other side of the skirmish line, a crowd formed, with demonstrators chanting “Let them go!”

Associate Professor Graeme Blair, a member of the Faculty of Justice in Palestine, said one student went to hospital to be treated for wounds from a rubber bullet. The projectile was fired while students were in the camp near Dodd Hall. He criticized the authorities and said students had been following instructions to disperse the event throughout the evening.

A UC police representative declined to answer questions about arrests or the use of “non-lethal” weapons.

Police had previously asked protesters to disperse at least twice. The crowd then quickly dismantled tents and barricades and moved to different locations on campus.

During the march, one of the demonstrators read aloud the names of killed Palestinians.

“They will not die in vain,” the demonstrators chanted after each name. “They will be redeemed.”

Some protesters laid roses next to a coffin painted with the Palestinian flag, which stood next to fake, blood-soaked corpses, with a helicopter hovering overhead.

Many protesters refused to give interviews, saying they were neither “media liaisons” nor “media trained.”

The event was organized by UCLA’s Students for Justice in Palestine. Several faculty members followed the crowd with a banner expressing their support for the students and the demonstration.

Monday’s event was the third pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA in recent weeks, and its handling sparked outrage and raised questions about how ill-prepared the university was for such an event.

The first protest took place on April 25 and sparked mixed reactions and a largely peaceful counter-protest on April 28.

Two days later, however, UCLA declared the camp illegal and ordered campus members to leave or face disciplinary action.

Later that night, a violent mob attacked the camp. The few police officers on duty were quickly overwhelmed and the violence lasted for three hours before authorities finally brought the situation under control.

At Monday’s demonstration, most protesters wore surgical masks, and those on the edges of the moving encampment held up makeshift wooden shields or erected chicken wire to barricade themselves in. The crowd moved from the courtyard in front of Royce Hall to the base of the Tongva Steps, to the terrace behind Kerckhoff Hall and to a courtyard in front of Dodd Hall.

Los Angeles police and private security guards formed a line as an unlawful assembly was declared at UCLA on Monday.

(Alene Tchekmedyan / Los Angeles Times)

As evening fell, protesters set up their barricades in the courtyard of Dodd Hall. The confrontation escalated when an unlawful assembly was declared. Police and security guards formed a line and protesters chanted, “Get the cops off campus!”

LA Police Captain Kelly Muniz confirmed to the Times that arrests were made during the protest, but did not provide further details.

UCLA professor Yogita Goyal, who teaches English and African-American studies, was among faculty on campus Monday expressing support for the protesters. Goyal said police should not have declared an unlawful assembly on Monday – or on April 30, when students protested peacefully.

“UCLA leadership should be here and allow our students to express their political views,” she said.