When a pro-Israel vigilante mob stormed a solidarity campsite established by nonviolent pro-Palestinian protestors, a rally against Israel’s war on Gaza at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) descended into violence.
When masked pro-Israel counterdemonstrators appeared in their hundreds outside the university campus and threw fireworks into the encampment, witnesses said the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) only became involved nearly four hours into the attacks, which began overnight into Wednesday.
Using pepper spray, sticks, stones, and metal fence, the assailants, who were holding Israeli flags, attempted to destroy the pro-Palestinian camp by attacking the kids. Joey Scott, an investigative journalist reporting to Al Jazeera from the site, claimed that police did little to defend the students, who instead ordered themselves to be shielded by the metal fence hurled at them.
A man was allegedly thrown to the ground and kicked and pummeled by others until they were taken out of the crowd by others before the police arrived.
In the end, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in an early statement on X on Wednesday morning that police were acting in response to the UCLA administration’s calls for assistance. Around 2:00 am (09:00 GMT), the LAPD verified their involvement.
Then, wearing Israeli flags, the assailants attacked the students with metal fences, sticks, stones, and pepper spray in an attempt to destroy the pro-Palestinian camp. Speaking to Al Jazeera from the site, investigative journalist Joey Scott stated that students re-commanded the metal fence hurled at them as a shield since police stood by and did nothing to defend them.
One person was allegedly thrown on top of another by the group before the cops came, and they kicked and pummeled the individual until others dragged them out of the fracas.
After a while, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in an early Wednesday morning statement on X that police were acting on the administration of UCLA’s requests for assistance. At around two in the morning (09:00 GMT), the LAPD announced their action.
Mary Osako, a senior UCLA administrator, told the school publication the Daily Bruin, “Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support.”
The student demonstrators have maintained their position, according to Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, who was reporting from Los Angeles. According to him, there was a “really shocking and ugly scene of violence.” The exact number of injured was not yet known, although rumors on social media suggested that several had been taken away with injuries.
Looking beyond the school, the vigilante mob looked to be from. Reynolds stated that the individuals harassing and attacking the pro-Palestinian activists appeared to be mostly non-students who were not from the UCLA campus.
“Absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable” was Bass’ description of the violence.
The antiwar organization stated, “As we cried out for their assistance, law enforcement just stood at the edge of the lawn and wouldn’t move.” With the onslaught lasting over seven hours, the only defense we had was one another.
NATIONWIDE ESCALATION
After two weeks of protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, which have expanded to colleges throughout the US and several international campuses, the attack at UCLA is the latest in a series of higher-profile incidents.
For the past two days, pro-Palestinian students at UCLA have been occupying campus spaces and demanding that the institution cut its financial links to Israel.
Late on Tuesday, the Ivy League university Columbia University in Manhattan successfully dismantled a protest encampment that it had been trying to destroy for over two weeks, and scores of pro-Palestinian protestors who had holed up in an academic building were detained by New York City police.
The police intervention at Columbia occurred on the 56th anniversary of a comparable action taken to end a student occupation of Hamilton Hall as a protest against racism and the Vietnam War.
Protesters were engaged in a physical altercation with police outside the main gate of The City College of New York, a public college located a short distance from Columbia. Police were seen pushing people off the sidewalk and into the roadway in social media footage. City busses were used to transport a large number of detained protestors.
In an attempt to dissuade pro-Palestinian demonstrators from making demands, Scott stated he thought that the police reaction to the violence at UCLA had been delayed, giving potential assailants “inspiration.”
Because it seems to be widely accepted, he added, “if they are trying to stop future violence, they have done a terrible job of that.”
“This is clearly a violent, uncontrollable mob that is bent on mayhem,” Reynolds of Al Jazeera remarked, comparing the UCLA mob to “settler violence on the [occupied] West Bank without the use of as much lethal force.”
A single pro-Israel protester was toting a big yellow banner bearing the phrase “Messiah” and a crown. According to Reynolds, “these are emblems of extreme, far-right Jewish groups.”
How the gang had organized was unknown.