LOS ANGELES: Supporters of Israel attacked a pro-Palestinian protest camp on the College of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) on Wednesday (Could 1), whereas New York’s mayor mentioned a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia College damaged up by police had been led by outsiders.
Witness footage from UCLA, verified by Reuters, confirmed folks wielding sticks or poles to hammer on wood boards getting used as makeshift barricades to guard the pro-Palestinian protesters earlier than police have been deployed to the campus.
On the opposite facet of the nation, New York police arrested pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed up in a constructing at Columbia College and eliminated a protest encampment on Tuesday evening.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams mentioned about 300 folks had been arrested and he blamed the protests on exterior agitators, however with out providing concrete proof.
The Oct 7 assault on southern Israel by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip and the following Israeli offensive on the Palestinian enclave have unleashed the largest outpouring of United States scholar activism for the reason that anti-racism protests of 2020.
As scholar rallies have unfold to dozens of faculties throughout the US in current days expressing opposition to Israel’s battle in Gaza, police have been referred to as in to quell or clear protests.
About 1,200 folks in southern Israel have been killed within the Oct 7 assault however the Israeli retaliatory assault has killed almost 35,000 Palestinians, in accordance with Gaza well being ministry figures, obliterated a lot of the enclave’s infrastructure, and created a humanitarian disaster verging on famine.
The coed protests within the US have additionally taken on political overtones within the run-up to the presidential election in November, with Republicans accusing some college directors of turning a blind eye to antisemitic rhetoric and harassment.
UCLA PROTESTERS REPORT VIOLENT ATTACKS
On Tuesday, UCLA officers introduced that the encampment was illegal and violated college coverage.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Brock mentioned it included folks “unaffiliated with our campus”, although he, like Adams, supplied no proof of the presence of outsiders.
Footage from the early hours confirmed largely male counter-demonstrators, a lot of them masked and a few apparently older than college students, throwing objects and making an attempt to smash or pull down the wood and metal limitations erected to protect the encampment.
Some screamed pro-Jewish feedback as pro-Palestinian protesters tried to battle them off.
“They have been developing right here and simply violently attacking us,” mentioned pro-Palestinian protester Kaia Shah, a researcher at UCLA.
“I simply did not suppose they’d ever get to this, escalate to this stage, the place our protest is met by counter-protesters who’re violently hurting us, inflicting ache on us, when we’re not doing something to them.”
