The conflict broke out a day after protests and multi-day encampments against the war swept the country’s college campuses, resulting in arrests on at least four institutions. Students urge their schools to stop funding Israeli companies that support or benefit from Israel’s conflict with Hamas and are demanding a cease-fire.
The demonstrators also demand that America stop providing military support to Israel’s war effort.
Vice chancellor for strategic communications at UCLA, Mary Osako, released a statement saying, “We are heartbroken about the violence that broke out. UCLA has a long history of being a place of peaceful protest.”
While campus police broke up small altercations, the Los Angeles Times described the protests as “large and noisy but mostly peaceful,” despite the Daily Bruin college newspaper reporting that one of its reporters was struck in the face with a banner. The University of Southern California, located across town, has shuttered its campus as a result of the 93 arrests made during Wednesday’s protests. In the midst of the chaos, the school called off its primary graduation ceremony.
Since a demonstration at Columbia University in New York City ten days ago, hundreds of protestors have been taken into custody or arrested at over a dozen campuses, ranging from New York to California. Due to antisemitic shouts that make Jewish students feel uncomfortable on campuses, infiltration of the encampments by individuals with no relation to the colleges, and regulations banning the encampments, several school administrations have asked the protestors to leave.
Leaders of the student protests maintain that the gatherings have been nonviolent.