Student reporters at the University of California, Los Angeles, are contesting Chancellor Gene Block for the lack of protection against pro-Israel counter-protesters who allegedly ambushed a pro-Palestinian encampment on university grounds.
On April 30, The Daily Bruin deployed UCLA student reporters on the scene when they discovered chaos amid explosive fireworks, irritant tear gas and vicious brawls, according to the publication. The madness occurred just after 10 pm and lasted until the early hours of May 1. At the scene, reporters witnessed a mob of about 100 pro-Israel counter-protesters ravaging the wooden barricades of the pro-Palestinian encampment in Dickson Plaza and inflicting harm in the process.
In a clip posted by Los Angeles Times higher education journalist Teresa Watanabe, members of the pro-Israel mob wore masks and chucked around white poles and bats. Some people hurled out offensive and genocidal language at the pro-Palestinian protesters, yelling, “Second Nakba!”
The phrase “The Nakba” means “catastrophe” in Arabic and alludes to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
When a student revealed himself by stepping on the other side of the barricade, the opposing mob teased him for confronting them alone. An attack was subsequently pursued as the mob swarmed around the student and attacked him with bats and fists. While there were no police in sight, the students of the Pro-Palestinian encampment fought as a community against the pro-Israel counter-protesters when barricades came falling down.
The University of California Police Department reportedly called for backup during the alleged attack.
According to John Thomas, Chief of Police of the University of California Police Department, only five to six officers worked on duty that night, The Daily Bruin reported. The department employed security guard services to make up for the low number in enforcement. However, student reporters recalled a time when security retreated into a campus hall building, banning entrance from everyone else.
“We called several different agencies,” Thomas told the student publication in part. “It has nothing to do with the encampment, but I do want to render the situation safe and take care of those that may have been injured at this point – to possibly make arrests if that opportunity presents.”
The organizers of the UCLA encampment are led by Students for Justice in Palestine and the UC Divest Coalition at UCLA. Their goal is to urge the university to cut financial ties with companies profiting off Israel’s war on Gaza. In a press release, the horrified organizers penned an account when “law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help.”
The organizers continued in the statement, “The only means of protection we had was each other. We keep each other safe.”
UCLA administrators previously called for the disbursement of the encampment.
This statement comes after UCLA administrators called the encampment unlawful and declared the potential suspension and expulsion of participants. In a mass letter, UCLA cited the California Penal Code 148(a)(1), which calls for a misdemeanor charge should anyone resist or obstruct peace officers or emergency medical staff.
“For students, those sanctions could include disciplinary measures such as interim suspension that, after proper due process through the student conduct process, could lead to dismissal,” UCLA wrote.
From the vantage point of a participant in the encampment, security officers remained on the scene minutes before midnight but refused to engage with anyone, including injured students inside the camp.
“The world is watching. Will someone have to die on our campus tonight for you to intervene, Gene Block?” the Daily Bruin wrote in a May 1 article. “The blood would be on your hands.”
In response to the devastating attack, Block said in a statement, “However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable. It has shaken our campus to its core.”
