50 arrested at UC Irvine pro-Palestinian encampment protest

IRVINE, Calif. - The pro-Palestinian encampment that had been set up for weeks on the University of California-Irvine campus has been dismantled and was completely cleared Thursday morning after tensions grew high the night prior, resulting in evacuation orders and 50 arrests. 

While the encampment has been cleared, all classes will be held remotely on Thursday following the night of unrest. 

UCI officials confirmed Thursday morning that 50 people were arrested as police began the booking process on site and those arrested were taken to the OC Jail. 

Those arrested, comprised of students, UCI employees and non-affiliates, were detained for failure to disperse after a direct police order, and some were arrested for trespassing. Once booked, all 50 were released on citation, authorities confirmed. 

Protesters began rallying around the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday near the encampment as they demanded that the university divest from Israel over the Hamas war. They then began blocking the entrance to the building when officers and Orange County sheriff’s deputies in riot gear started arresting protesters, including two who identified themselves as UCI faculty members. 

Hundreds of law enforcement officers moved onto the campus and video from the scene showed pushing and shoving between both sides as things escalated. 

Law enforcement dismantled the encampment by the early evening hours after declaring an unlawful assembly and ordering the crowd to disperse.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• UC Irvine protest: Pro-Palestine demonstrators arrested after taking over campus building
• UC Irvine protests: Online classes only May 16 amid campus tension between pro-Palestine demonstrators, cops

The situation seemed to intensify in the last week after some students received suspension notices. 

"We were just peacefully protesting, but they see it as aggressive, which is the issue, and I just feel like they need to back off and go back where they came from to be honest," one protester told FOX 11. 

"[They’re] suspending students, arresting students, that’s not right, which is why we’re out here protesting," another protester said. 

By 7 p.m., close to 300 protesters remained and about an hour later, authorities gave orders for them to disperse or face arrest. 

UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman issued the following open letter after Wednesday's campus clash between law enforcement and student-led demonstrators:

Dear Campus Community,

What a sad day for our university. I’m brokenhearted.

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, we, along with most other UC campuses, received the latest "demands" from the protesters. The protesters orchestrated a swift departure from their encampment. In a coordinated fashion they moved out of the encampment to the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall, where a small group barricaded themselves in, supported by a large group of community members who had gathered for a scheduled rally.

For the last two weeks, I have consistently communicated that the encampment violated our policies but that the actions did not rise to the level requiring police intervention. My approach was consistent with the guidelines of UC's Robinson/Edley Report, which urges the UC to exhaust all possible alternatives before resorting to police intervention.

I was prepared to allow a peaceful encampment to exist on the campus without resorting to police intervention, even though the encampment violated our policies and the existence of the encampment was a matter of great distress to other members of our community. I communicated that if there were violations of our rules we would address them through the normal administrative policies of the university and not through police action.

And so after weeks when the encampers assured our community that they were committed to maintaining a peaceful and nondisruptive encampment, it was terrible to see that they would dramatically alter the situation in a way that was a direct assault on the rights of other students and the university mission.

The latest campus-specific and systemwide demands made by our encampers and their counterparts across the University of California attempted to dictate that anyone who disagreed with them must conform to their opinions. They asserted the right to oversee many elements of university operations involving the administration, faculty, students, and staff, bypassing customary campus protocols and ignoring the function of the Academic Senate.

Most importantly, their assault on the academic freedom rights of our faculty and the free speech rights of faculty and students was appalling. One can only imagine the response if people on the other side of these issues established an encampment to force me to censor all anti-Zionist academic and student programming.

But my concern now is not the unreasonableness of their demands. It is their decision to transform a manageable situation that did not have to involve police into a situation that required a different response. I never wanted that. I devoted all of my energies to prevent this from happening.

I’m sorry this campus I love so much had to experience this terrible and avoidable situation. I remain steadfast in my commitment to protecting the rights of all members of our community to express whatever viewpoints they believe are essential for others to hear and engage. And I remain steadfast in my commitment to defend our faculty and students from efforts to prevent them from having the same rights of academic freedom and free speech as everyone else on this campus.

My hope is that we can find our way to a culture of peace, mutual respect, and shared commitment to addressing our differences through the norms of scholarly inquiry and debate.

Fiat Lux,

Chancellor Howard Gillman

While classes will be held remotely on Thursday, increased patrols remain on campus.