Police clear the UC Irvine camp after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the lecture hall

May 16 (UPI) – Law enforcement on Wednesday retook control of a lecture hall occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters who escalated their demonstration at the University of California, Irvine.

Protesters had been camped on the school’s campus since April 29, but around 2:30 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, demonstrators stormed into the Physical Sciences lecture hall. The university said a small group barricaded themselves in the building, which was surrounded by a larger group.

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Video of the seizure, posted on the Instagram page of the activist group Students for Justice in Palestine at UCI, shows a banner being unfurled on the outside of the building to rename it “Alex Odeh Hall.”

Odeh was a Palestinian activist and former West Coast director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee who was killed in the 1985 bombing of his office in Santa Ana, California.

The protesters — like many who have camped at universities across the country in recent weeks — are calling for UC Irvine’s withdrawal from Israel because of the country’s war in the Middle East against Hamas in Gaza.

Officers from the Irvine Police Department and Orange County Sheriff’s deputies were called in from the school to respond to the swarm of protesters, the university said, although a number of other law enforcement agencies also responded, including from Newport Beach.

Around 11:30 p.m., UC Irvine announced online that “police operations have concluded.”

The number of arrests was unknown.

UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman said in a statement Wednesday evening that he was “heartbroken” about the day’s events.

“What a sad day for our university,” he said.

He said he was willing to allow a peaceful encampment on campus even though it violated school policy, but protesters escalated the situation Wednesday.

The school held talks with the protesters to end the encampment, but made new demands before seizing the building, which Gillman described as an attempt to “mandate anyone who disagrees with them to conform to their opinion.”

Gillman did not elaborate on the demands, but suggested they could amount to censorship of Zionist teachers and students.

“They claimed the right to oversee many elements of university operations involving administration, faculty, students and staff, bypassing normal campus protocols and ignoring the function of the Academic Senate,” he said.

“Most importantly, their attack on the academic freedom of our faculty and the free speech rights of faculty and students was appalling. “One can only imagine the reaction if people on the other side of these issues set up camp to force me to censor all anti-Zionist academic and student programs,” he continued.

Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan defended protesters from the law enforcement crackdown, saying it was “a disgrace” that free speech protests were being met with “violence.”

“Taking up space on campus or in a building poses no threat to anyone. UCI leadership must do everything it can to avoid a violent scenario here. These are your students without weapons,” she said on X.

Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neil responded to the comment defending his police force involved in clearing out the auditorium, asking them to clarify whether they are accusing law enforcement of involvement in violence.

“If that’s what you meant, then your message is under the mayor’s office. If not, sort it out immediately,” he said.

UC Irvine said Thursday’s classes will be held remotely, including for faculty.