Dueling Pro-Palestinian, Pro-Israel protests get heated at UCLA
Fights broke out after after a barrier was breached meant to separate the groups.
Fights broke out at UCLA Sunday, April 28 among pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel supporters after a barrier that was meant to separate the dueling groups of demonstrators was breached.
A group called Stand With Us scheduled an 11 a.m. rally to show support for Jewish students after days of often intense pro-Palestinian protests at campuses across the United States, including at crosstown USC. The rally was co-sponsored by the United Jewish Coalition in partnership with the Israel American Council and several related organizations.
Members of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice scheduled a 9:30 a.m. demonstration to support students’ right to protest, in response to a request from pro-Palestine protesters at the campus.
“This morning, a group of demonstrators breached a barrier that the university had established separating two groups of protesters on our campus, resulting in physical altercations,” Mary Osako, vice chancellor of UCLA Strategic Communications, said in a statement. “UCLA has a long history of being a place of peaceful protest, and we are heartbroken about the violence that broke out.”
According to the Daily Bruin, members of both groups were facing off on the lawn between Haines Hall and Kaplan Hall on Sunday morning.
“Fights have broken out between protesters supporting Israel and those supporting Palestine in Dickson Plaza,” the newspaper reported shortly before 11 a.m.
Among the speakers at the pro-Israel rally was Elan Carr, CEO of the Israeli American Council.
“We will take back our campuses, from Columbia to UCLA and everywhere in between,” he told the crowd, according to the Daily Bruin.
No arrests were reported as of midday Sunday.
“My team and I are closely tracking the protests at UCLA today, and are in close communication with UCLA leadership and City officials to ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone on campus,” City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky posted on X.
See also: Pro-Palestinian protest reignites at USC
Overnight, the pro-Palestine protesters expanded their UCLA campus encampment outside to stretch from the top of the Janss Steps to the east end of Royce Hall.
The growing number of pro-Palestine protesters has been met with an equally fervent group of counter-protesters who played loud music near the encampment and shouted chants about Palestine preceded by an obscenity, the Daily Bruin reported.
One counter-protester stomped on a Palestinian flag at the encampment while another ripped posters off the exterior of the encampment, the Daily Bruin reported.
As of Sunday morning, groups supporting the counter-protesters had raised $64,478 on GoFundMe to support Bruins for Israel, more then twice the initial $26,000 goal.
The makeshift cluster of more than 50 camping tents for the pro-Palestine protesters began forming early Thursday and continued to grow over the weekend.
Organizers of UCLA’s Palestine Solidarity Encampment, similar to their counterparts at USC, issued a list of demands calling for divestment of all University of California and UCLA Foundation funds from companies tied to Israel, along with a demand that the university call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and an academic boycott by UC against Israeli universities, including a suspension of study-abroad programs.
It was unclear whether all of the participants were UCLA students.
“Our top priority is always the safety and well-being of our entire Bruin community,” Osako said in a statement Thursday morning. “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.”
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