The Angels. Several clashes broke out early Wednesday morning at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) outside the pro-Palestinian protest movement that dozens of American campuses are trying to contain.
GALLERY: Police enter UCLA after clashes between Gaza protesters
Images from American television networks show protesters and counter-protesters clashing with sticks, knocking down barricades and throwing fireworks and objects at the opposing side in the middle of the night.
The Los Angeles Police Department said on social media that, at the chancellor’s request, its “officers have been deployed and are currently on the UCLA campus to help restore order.”
The police force had previously indicated that its actions responded to “multiple acts of violence within the large camp” set up last week at the university.
Its chancellor, Gene D. Block, had previously warned that while many of the protesters and counterprotesters “were peaceful,” “the tactics of others have been downright shocking and disgraceful.”
“We have seen cases of violence,” he said.
Eviction in Columbia
The riots in Los Angeles broke out after dozens of police officers entered Columbia University, in the heart of New York, on Tuesday night and cleared a building occupied by pro-Palestinian students.
CNN, citing New York police, stated that more than a hundred protesters were arrested.
Officers climbed a platform mounted on a truck to the second floor of Hamilton Hall and began leading handcuffed students into police vans, in front of a crowd chanting “Free Palestine!”
Protesters had barricaded themselves in that Columbia University building the previous night and vowed to fight attempts to evict them.
Columbia Chancellor Minouche Shafik had asked for police intervention in a public letter in which she claimed that the occupation was led “by individuals who were not affiliated with the university.”
He also asked authorities to “maintain a presence on campus until at least May 17 to maintain order and ensure that no camps are set up.”
In a post on Instagram, the protesters attacked the rector, saying that “her use of the words ‘care’ and ‘safety’ are nothing short of horrifying.”
The occupation of the building occurred after the university began suspending students for not complying with an eviction order from the camp set up on its grounds.
Among other demands, protesters asked that Columbia University reject all funding linked to Israel. The institution refused on Monday night and the parties did not reach an agreement.
Coast to coast
Demonstrations have spread across the country’s universities, facing the largest mobilization since protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.
The takeover of the Columbia University building was condemned by President Joe Biden, who had asked to guarantee the freedom of expression of students and avoid anti-Semitic acts.
His predecessor and rival in the November election, Donald Trump, blamed the Democrat for the “anti-Semitism that is permeating the country.”
Protests against the Gaza war have posed a challenge to university authorities to balance the right to freedom of expression with complaints that rallies have descended into hatred and anti-Semitism.
On Tuesday, Brown University agreed with students to remove their camp in exchange for holding a vote on divestment from Israel, a major concession for an elite American university.
But in others, such as the University of North Carolina, the Californian Cal Poly Humboldt or the University of Texas in Austin, the police intervened to dismantle the protests and arrest numerous protesters, with hundreds of arrests throughout the country.
U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday expressed concern about measures taken to disperse protests, saying “freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society.”
Turk added that “incitement to violence or hatred based on identity or points of view, whether real or perceived, must be strongly repudiated.”
Protest organizers deny accusations of anti-Semitism, arguing instead that their actions are directed at the Israeli government and its handling of the conflict in Gaza.
The war began with Hamas’ unprecedented attack on October 7, which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliation has killed at least more than 34,500 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
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– 2024-05-04 02:01:29
