LOS ANGELES, Calif – At the entrance to the pro-Palestine camp at UCLA on Wednesday, events occur in an orderly and quiet manner, except for the constant noise of a police helicopter circling overhead.
Those wishing to enter lined up, and organisers informed them of the basic rules: Do not interact with the police or journalists. Ignore the counter-protesters. No trash. No smoking or drinking.
But despite the relative calm, tensions were high. Just hours earlier, during the night, a group of anti-Israel protesters attacked the camp, tearing down barricades and assaulting demonstrators with metal pipes, mace, and pepper spray. Fireworks were also set off inside the camp.
Classes at UCLA were cancelled on Wednesday, and the administration issued a statement condemning the “horrific acts of violence” against the camp, which was set up to protest Israel’s war on Gaza.
Anna, a camp spokeswoman who declined to give her last name, said dozens of pro-Palestine demonstrators were injured or sprayed with pepper spray in the attack, which lasted from late Tuesday night until the early hours of Wednesday morning.
She added that the attack occurred partly under the watchful eye of the police, who intervened several hours after the violence began.
The police did nothing, she told, noting that she was still feeling the lingering effects of being pepper-sprayed and punched by an attacker from the pro-Israel brigade. She explained that she spent hours helping others who were injured.
They were coming to us with metal pipes. Many people went to the hospital because of how seriously injured they were. One person remained in a wheelchair. Another had his hand completely shattered.
In an anonymously drafted statement, members of UCLA Radio’s news department echoed that assessment, saying campus police did little to help the pro-Palestinian camp.
While students were relentlessly harassed by counter-protesters, campus security and the UCPD continued to monitor and not participate. No effort was made to protect UCLA students, they wrote.
In addition, when the LAPD and California Highway Patrol were called to the scene, they did not intervene with the violent protesters for an hour.
Political pressure:
The attack on the camp is one of the most violent manifestations to date of rising tensions on college campuses across the United States.
Students from coast to coast set up camps, occupied buildings, and engaged in other acts of civil disobedience in opposition to U.S. support for the war.
However, university administrators and elected officials, including President Joe Biden, have claimed that the protests include instances of anti-Semitism, creating an unsafe educational environment for Jewish students.
However, protest organisers at UCLA and elsewhere reject this claim. Jewish, Arab and Muslim communities have reported increasing harassment and discrimination since the war in Gaza began nearly seven months ago, on October 7.
These protests have turned violent at the behest of pro-Israel demonstrators, many of whom are not even students at the institution, members of UC Radio’s news department wrote in their statement.
As students, we should not worry about our safety on campus — especially for being in campus spaces as a community.
However, since December, two congressional hearings have been held to review allegations of anti-Semitism on campus specifically, with the presidents of four major universities called in for questioning. Two of those presidents have since resigned.
On Wednesday, the House took further action to crack down on anti-Semitism on campus.
He passed a bill adopting a definition of anti-Semitism in civil rights law that could punish criticism of Israel. While the bill has yet to be voted on in the Senate, critics fear that any resulting law could be used to withhold funds from universities involved in pro-Palestinian activism.
Facing pressure from lawmakers to quell the protests, several universities called police to disperse the demonstrators, including Columbia and Yale, two prestigious Ivy League institutions.
