Los Angeles, California – On Wednesday, at the entrance to the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), events unfolded orderly and silently, except for the constant drone of a police helicopter. which flies over the scene.
Those who wanted to enter formed a queue and the organizers explained to them the basic rules: no interacting with the police or journalists. Ignore the counter-protesters. Do not litter. Do not smoke or drink.
But despite the relative calm, tensions were high. Hours earlier that night, a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters had attacked the camp, destroying barricades and attacking demonstrators with metal pipes, sledgehammers and pepper spray. Fireworks were also set off in the camp.
Classes at UCLA were canceled Wednesday and the administration issued a statement condemning the “horrific acts of violence” against the encampment, set up in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Anna, a camp spokeswoman who declined to give her last name, said dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters were injured or pepper-sprayed during the attack, which lasted from Tuesday evening until in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
She added that the attack took place partly under the watch of the police, occurring several hours after the violence began.
“The police did nothing,” she told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, noting that she still felt the lingering effects of being pepper-sprayed and beaten by an attacker from the pro-Israel contingent. She said she spent hours helping other injured people.
“They were coming towards us with metal pipes. Many people were hospitalized due to the severity of their injuries. One person left in a wheelchair. Another had his hand completely broken.
In an anonymously written statement to Al Jazeera, members of the UCLA radio news department echoed that assessment, saying campus police had done little to help the pro-campus encampment. Palestinian.
“As students were relentlessly harassed by counterprotesters, Campus Security and the University of California Police Department (UCPD) continued to monitor and not engage. No effort was made to protect UCLA students,” they wrote.
“Additionally, when the LAPD and California Highway Patrol were called to the scene, they did not respond to the violent protesters for an hour.”
By daylight Wednesday, the space previously used by pro-Israel protesters was largely empty, with several large Israeli flags fluttering in the wind. Reports of an increased police presence, however, raised suspicions that the pro-Palestinian encampment would be emptied later in the day.
UCLA police and CSC Los Angeles, a security and event management company employed on campus, had not responded to Al Jazeera’s questions by the time of publication.
Anna sees a contrast between the apathetic police response to last night’s violence and the way law enforcement has aggressively broken up pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the country.
In New York, for example, about 282 protesters were arrested overnight as police cleared demonstrations at Columbia University and the City College of New York.
There was a large police presence on the UCLA campus Wednesday, with about a dozen patrol cars facing the direction of the encampment.
Yet it was a sleepy scene: protesters quietly listened to the speeches, while police were observed checking their phones. Occasional hecklers passed by, but they were largely ignored.
Anna told Al Jazeera that Tuesday night’s attack, however, was the culmination of several days of harassment.
The aggression by pro-Israel counterprotesters, she said, grew with “increasing severity.” There had even been an attempt one night before to break into the camp.
Anna said counterprotesters also set up loudspeakers at night to play a handful of songs over and over again, in an apparent attempt to deprive protesters of sleep and disrupt their peace of mind. She compared their methods to those used by Israeli forces against Palestinian prisoners.
But she stressed that the students at the camp did not want the violence to detract from their message.
They prefer to focus on Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and displaced more than 90 percent of the enclave’s population.
Despite reports of rights abuses by Israeli forces, the US government has remained steadfast in its support of the Israeli military offensive.
Protesters on campus, like those at UCLA, are demanding an end to university investments in companies seen as complicit in Israel’s war and its occupation of Palestinian territories. They also called for an end to academic relations with Israeli institutions.
“Even though we faced this incredible violence last night, it’s not about us as students,” Anna said. “It’s about how we students can draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians and the genocide in Gaza. What brought so many people to this camp was our love for Palestine, for the lives and dignity of Palestinian freedom. »
Political pressure
The attack on the encampment was one of the most violent manifestations yet of growing tensions on college campuses in the United States.
Students from coast to coast set up encampments, occupied buildings, and carried out other acts of civil disobedience in opposition to American support for the war.
However, university administrators and elected officials, including President Joe Biden, have claimed that the protests included instances of anti-Semitism, creating a dangerous learning environment for Jewish students.
Organizers of protests at UCLA and elsewhere, however, reject the allegation. The Jewish, Arab and Muslim communities have all reported increased harassment and discrimination since the Gaza war began almost seven months ago on October 7.
“These protests only turned violent at the behest of pro-Israel demonstrators, many of whom are not even students at the institution,” wrote members of the UCLA Radio News Department. in their statement to Al Jazeera.
“As students, we should not have to worry about our safety on campus, especially existing in our campus spaces as a community.”
Yet since December, two congressional hearings have been held to specifically examine allegations of anti-Semitism on campus, with the presidents of four major universities summoned for questioning. Two of these presidents have since resigned.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives took new steps to crack down on anti-Semitism on campus.
He passed a bill adopt a definition of anti-Semitism in the civil rights law that could potentially penalize criticism of Israel. Although the bill has not yet passed the Senate, critics fear that any resulting law could be used to deny funds to universities involved in pro-Palestinian activism.
Faced with pressure from lawmakers to quell the protests, many universities have called in police to disperse protesters, including at Columbia and Yale, two prestigious Ivy League institutions.
Nonetheless, after the nighttime attack at UCLA, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement Wednesday, condemning the “detestable violence” and calling for an independent investigation.
California Governor Gavin Newsom also issued a statement saying those who engaged in illegal actions “must be held accountable,” without specifying that pro-Palestinian protesters were the group attacked.
Anna nevertheless urged politicians to do more to support the UCLA protesters and protect their free speech rights.
“The overwhelming majority of support comes from other students, community members and their loved ones,” Anna said. “So far, I have not seen any leading politician condemn the way we were attacked last night in the same way they condemned the Jewish students who felt unsafe because of anti-Zionist activism on campus. »
