Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on Wednesday evening as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers arrived in riot gear to remove their week-old “encampment.”
BREAKING: Per LAPD source, LAPD has just gone into a citywide tactical alert as tension builds at UCLA campus. Larger numbers of LAPD in riot gear now arriving on campus near the encampment. pic.twitter.com/cjLlS0iofH
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 2, 2024
Earlier Wednesday afternoon, the LAPD warned the activists to leave the “encampment” or face arrest. The activists cheered and resolved to stay, as supporters flocked to UCLA from elsewhere in the city to offer moral support.
As riot police massed near the encampment, and prison buses reportedly waited on nearby Wilshire Boulevard, the activists held a rally, with chants of “Free Palestine”; “¡Si, se puede!” and “The people, united, will never be defeated.”
They also chanted “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free,” which is widely considered an antisemitic chant. Roughly half of the world’s Jews live in Israel, the historic and religious homeland of the Jewish people for millennia.
And they chanted “Long live intifada!” and “Intifada revolution.” The term intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings in the 1980s and 2000s. The latter was a brutal campaign of terror that killed over 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians.
Since its establishment last Thursday, the encampment had occupied the central plaza of campus in front of Royce Hall, building barricades and forcibly denying entry to students, journalists, and members of the public. This journalist was assaulted by the masked guards of the encampment. UCLA appeared to delegate security authority to the encampment guards. Jewish students feared for their personal safety and were unable to pass through the area.
The UCLA administration declined to call police onto campus until pro-Israel vigilantes attacked the encampment overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday, pulling down the barricades and clashing with activists for hours.
On social media, activists claimed that police deliberately neglected to protect them because they are on the side of the “Zionists.” In reality, UCLA security had protected the encampment for days as the administration kept police out.
Earlier Wednesday, members of the encampment held a press conference and complained about the lack of police protection. (Ironically, as Fox News’ Bill Melugin pointed out, one of the activists’ demands is to “abolish” university police.)
The anti-Israel protesters at UCLA just held a press conference where they said they were victims of a “life threatening assault” at the hands of “Zionists” last night. They complained that police didn’t do enough to intervene, however, their demands include “abolish policing”. pic.twitter.com/bt5aQY3NZf
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 1, 2024
Members of the Jewish community were alarmed by the encampment and its radical, antisemitic rhetoric. The neighborhoods near UCLA are home to significant numbers of Jews, notably immigrants from Iran.
The overnight clashes finally provoked Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (D) to react to the situation. Bass vowed that those responsible for the violence overnight would be prosecuted. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block added that students who were found to have participated in the vigilantism would be arrested and would face disciplinary procedures. It was a swift response compared to the week of tolerance shown toward the encampment.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.