UCLA canceled classes Wednesday after the campus was wracked by violence overnight when a pro-Israel crowd attacked a pro-Palestine encampment at the school.
The pro-Israel group approached the tent camp around 11 p.m., attempting to tear down barricades that had surrounded the encampment. The crowd threw at least one firework into the camp.
On the edges of the encampment, dozens of people were fighting hand-to-hand, some wrestling over barricades while others grappled to the ground, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The fights continued for two to three hours as campus security guards stood by. UCLA called in the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol for help, but responding officers did not intervene for more than an hour, according to the L.A. Times. Eventually, cops stepped in to form a shield line and push the pro-Israel demonstrators out of the area.
“It gives people impunity to come to our campus as a rampaging mob,” Ananya Roy, a UCLA professor of urban planning, social welfare and geography, told the L.A. Times. “The word is out: They can do this repeatedly and get away with it. I am ashamed of my university.”
Students at numerous universities across the country have set up similar pro-Palestine encampments, following the example of their peers at Columbia University.
When the camps have been met with violence, it has usually come from police, such as when the NYPD dismantled the camp at Columbia and arrested students occupying Hamilton Hall on Tuesday night. The incident at UCLA appears to be the first case of a group of civilians attacking an encampment.
Hours before the violence erupted, UCLA’s administration had declared the encampment “unlawful” and said it “violates university policy.” However, the temporary structures remained standing Wednesday morning.
With News Wire Services
