Pro-Palestine UCLA protesters rally after USC mass protest
LOS ANGELES - Pro-Palestine protesters showed solidarity with Gaza by setting up an encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, a day after a mass protest on the campus of USC that resulted in nearly 100 arrests.
SkyFOX video over UCLA showed several tents set up in front of Royce Hall. Multiple large signs were also seen on display. One reads, "UCLA Says Free Palestine," while another read, "Blood on the UC Hands." Protesters also erected a makeshift wooden fence alongside the encampment.
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Counter-protesters arrived on campus around 5 p.m. Minor scuffles between protesters broke out. So far, no arrests or injuries were reported.
"For 201 days, the world has watched in silence as Israel has murdered over 30,000 Palestinians. today, UCLA joins students across the country in demanding that our universities divest from the companies which profit off of the occupation, apartheid and genocide in Palestine," according to a message posted online by organizers of the UCLA encampment, including the UC Divest Coalition at UCLA, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace UCLA.
"Now, more than ever, we must rise in solidarity to demand that the world centers Palestine, that the genocide is immediately ended and that our university is no longer complicit in human rights violations."
"Our top priority is always the safety and wellbeing of our entire Bruin community," Mary Osako, vice chancellor of UCLA Strategic Communications, said in a statement. "We're actively monitoring this situation to support a peaceful campus environment that respects our community's right to free expression while minimizing disruption to our teaching and learning mission."
On Wednesday, law enforcement broke up a large pro-Palestine demonstration on the USC campus. The protest, "Gaza Solidarity Occupation," is part of a larger, nationwide trend of college demonstrations to support Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas War.
USC's campus is closed Thursday until further notice, although classes will go on as scheduled, officials said.
USC made national headlines over its decision to bar pro-Palestinian valedictorian Asna Tabassum from speaking at the May 10 commencement ceremony. The move came following complaints about some of Tabassum's online posts, including a link to a website advocating the abolition of Israel.
USC has since canceled its "main stage" commencement ceremony.
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UCLA and USC are now part of a growing list of college campuses across the nation that have seen encampments and protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
The students have a unified demand of their schools: Stop doing business with Israel — or any companies that support its ongoing war in Gaza.
RELATED COVERAGE: Protests at Columbia, other colleges escalate
Campus protests began after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, when militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. During the ensuing war, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and noncombatants but says at least two-thirds of the dead are children and women.
City News Service and The Associated Press contributed to this report.