2-5-2024 (LOS ANGELES) Tensions over the ongoing conflict in Gaza reached a boiling point on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus this week, as hundreds of riot police moved in to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment, arresting defiant demonstrators in a dramatic pre-dawn raid.
The crackdown on Thursday morning marked the latest flashpoint in a wave of campus protests that have swept across American universities, with students rallying to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies linked to Israel’s government.
As the sun rose over Westwood, helmeted officers swarmed the encampment, which had occupied a central plaza roughly the size of a football field. Loudspeaker announcements had earlier urged protesters to vacate the “unauthorised” site, warning that those who remained could face sanctions.
#BREAKING: Riot police have broken through protestors barricades at UCLA. pic.twitter.com/pFTMdjUF6J
— War Intel (@warintel4u) May 2, 2024
Footage from the scene showed lines of baton-wielding police advancing on the camp, as demonstrators – some donning makeshift shields and white helmets – linked arms in a bid to stall their progress. Chants of “push them back” echoed across the plaza, punctuated by the deafening blasts of flash-bang grenades.
According to eyewitness reports, around 300 to 500 protesters had hunkered down within the encampment overnight, many draped in traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves. A further 2,000 supporters had gathered outside the barricades in solidarity.
Cops are shooting students at UCLA with less lethal munitions. They’d rather shoot kids than stop this genocide.pic.twitter.com/4RafQgTGZP
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) May 2, 2024
As the siege intensified, some activists surrendered peacefully, walking away with hands raised. Others, however, stood their ground – resulting in a series of tense standoffs and arrests, with protesters ultimately led away in plastic zip-ties.
The police operation had begun building the previous evening, with tactical units filing onto campus and taking up positions adjacent to the protest site. Authorities had declared the encampment unlawful on Wednesday, cancelling classes amid concerns over escalating unrest.
Just hours earlier, a violent clash had erupted between the camp’s occupants and a group of masked counter-protesters, who had mounted a surprise assault on the tent city late on Tuesday night. Both sides traded blows and deployed pepper spray during the hours-long confrontation, prompting criticism over the university’s “limited and delayed” response.
For many at the pro-Palestinian camp, that perceived lack of action has fuelled a sense of injustice – making the forceful clearance on Thursday all the more contentious.
“For them to come out the next night to remove us from the encampment, it doesn’t make any sense, but it also makes all the sense in the world,” said Taylor Gee, a 30-year-old law student and protester.
The UCLA demonstrations have unfolded against a backdrop of intensifying campus activism nationwide, as clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli factions have proliferated from Columbia University in New York to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
Mirroring the heated rhetoric of the Middle Eastern conflict itself, both sides have traded accusations of harassment and antisemitism, elevating the issue to the political mainstream ahead of November’s presidential election.
