Chaos erupted at two top US colleges overnight after brutal clashes broke out between pro and anti-Israeli protesters at UCLA in Los Angeles – hours after cops in New York cleared a Gaza encampment at Columbia University.
There were scenes of mayhem with ‘horrific acts of violence’ as activists brawled openly in the grounds of UCLA deep into the night with fireworks hurled into crowds and objects thrown before police intervened.
The fighting erupted just hours after cops in New York dramatically raided halls at Columbia University in New York City and arrested 300 pro-Palestine protesters who had occupied the building.
Mayor Eric Adams blamed the majority of the trouble at the Ivy League college on outside agitators. The NYPD’s Deputy Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said that law enforcement is concerned about ‘radicalization’ in the city.
At the same time as the altercations were taking place in California, a protester on the campus of the University of Arizona was struck in the head with a rubber bullet as four people were arrested with cops using ‘non lethal chemical munitions.’
In New Orleans, state police and local police worked in tandem to disperse a crowd of protesters on Tulane University’s campus.
That resulted in six arrests and the suspension of seven students. An investigation has been launched into whether or not faculty were actively in the protests. Meanwhile, group of protesters ransacked a library in Portland State University, also on Tuesday.
These incidents unfolded amid a deepening national crisis with dozens of universities around the United States struggling to contain similar protests.
Around 200 pro-Israel supporters set upon a group of pro-Palestinian activists late on Tuesday night
A state trooper pepper sprays pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas in Austin
Protesters in Portland State University raided the school library to graffiti pro-Palestine messages on the walls
A firework reportedly thrown by pro-Israel supporters explodes close to the student encampment
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator (centre) is beaten during violent scenes at UCLA last night
A pro-Palestinian protester is treated ‘after being maced’ during violent clashes at UCLA
Violence erupted through the night at UCLA before cops finally intervened to restore calm
Rival protesters brawled openly in the campus of UCLA overnight in scenes of mayhem
A pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of California, Los Angeles overnight
Pro-Israel supporters attempting to dismantle a Pro-Palestine encampment
Members of the California Highway Patrol lined up preventing the two groups from engaging
Protesters in support of Palestinians in Gaza help one another rinse their eyes amid skirmishes at UCLA
Demonstrators barricade their encampment after counter protesters attempted to remove it
In UCLA last night protesters and counter-protesters were seen clashing with sticks, and tearing down metal barricades, TV footage showed. Others were seen launching fireworks or hurling objects at each other in the dark – lit up with laser pointers and bright flashlights.
The Los Angeles police department said that ‘officers have been deployed, and are currently on the UCLA campus, to assist in restoring order.’
The nationwide protests have posed a challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate.
The unrest has swept through US higher education institutions like wildfire, with many student protesters erecting tent encampments on campuses from coast to coast.
In another of the newest clashes, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, police moved in Tuesday to clear one encampment, detaining some protesters in a tense showdown.
A week-long occupation was brought also brought to an end at northern California’s Cal Poly Humboldt while Portland State University’s campus, in Oregon, was closed Tuesday ‘due to an ongoing incident’ in the library.
Local media reported around 50 protesters had broken into the building a day earlier.
And Brown University reached an agreement in which student protesters will remove their encampment in exchange for the institution holding a vote on divesting from Israel – a major concession from an elite American university.
Shocking footage from the scene at UCLA showed both sides openly clashing as college security abandoned the scene and local police were nowhere to be seen.
Just before 11pm local time in Los Angeles, the violence escalated when the pro-Israeli side surrounded the pro-Palestine group. During this standoff, a firework was thrown at the camp.
The video showed both sides using pieces of wood as makeshift weapons. The walls of the encampment were smashed, at least one person could be seen being dragged on the ground by another group.
‘Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight, and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support,’ UCLA’s vice-chancellor Mary Osako said in a tweet.
The LAPD said in a message that their presence was requested on campus at UCLA due to ‘multiple acts of violence.’
These clashes lasted for around 90 minutes before Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced that law enforcement was about to be deployed at the college. At 1:30am local time police officers and the California Highway Patrol arrived.
Counter-protesters try to remove barricades at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of California
Protesters and counter-protesters were seen clashing with sticks, and tearing down metal barricades, TV footage showed
Pro Palestinian protesters stand inside an encampment on the campus of the University of California,
NEW YORK: NYPD cops dressed in riot gear stormed through the window of a Columbia University building occupied by dozens of pro-Palestine protesters to begin clearing them out
The police operation was concluded within around two hours of cops storming the campus
The decision to call in police was condemned by the Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors
Members of the NYPD surround and breach Hamilton Hall where demonstrators barricaded themselves inside on the Columbia University campus on April 30, 2024 in New York City
Police use a vehicle named ‘the bear’ to enter Hamilton Hall from a public street, which was occupied by protesters, as other officers enter the campus of Columbia University
Columbia University protesters smashed windows, upended furniture and caused damage throughout Hamilton Hall amid their brief occupation
TEXAS: This was the scene earlier this week in Austin when state troopers pepper sprayed pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas
The Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza, and the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Palestinian enclave, have unleashed the biggest outpouring of U.S. student activism since the anti-racism protests of 2020.
This week alone has seen police at the University of Texas in Austin, Tulane University in New Orleans, the University of North Carolina and the University of Connecticut forcibly remove pro-Palestine protest encampments.
At Columbia University, the NYPD will remain at the scene until May 17 to prevent further encampments from being created.
Just blocks away from Columbia, at The City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college´s main gate.
Video posted on social media by news reporters on the scene late Tuesday showed officers putting some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared people from the street and sidewalks. Many detained protesters were driven away on city buses.
After police arrived, officers lowered a Palestinian flag atop the City College flagpole, balled it up and tossed it to the ground before raising an American flag.
Brown University, another member of the Ivy League, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus.
Demonstrators said they would close their encampment in exchange for administrators taking a vote to consider divestment from Israel in October.
The compromise appeared to mark the first time a U.S. college has agreed to vote on divestment in the wake of the protests.
Columbia’s police action happened on the 56th anniversary of a similar move to quash an occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
The police department earlier Tuesday said officers wouldn’t enter the grounds without the college administration´s request or an imminent emergency.
Now, law enforcement will be there through May 17, the end of the university’s commencement events.
In a letter to senior NYPD officials, Columbia President Minouche Shafik said the administration made the request that police remove protesters from the occupied building and a nearby tent encampment ‘with the utmost regret.’
Shafik also referenced the idea, first put forward by New York City Mayor Eric Adams earlier in the day, that the group that occupied Hamilton was ‘led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university.’
Neither provided specific evidence to back up that contention, which was disputed by protest organizers and participants.
NYPD officials made similar claims about ‘outside agitators’ during the huge, grassroots demonstrations against racial injustice that erupted across the city after the death of George Floyd in 2020.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik called in the NYPD in to ‘restore order and safety’ to the campus amid the escalating protests which also included a massive encampment at the school
Cops were armed with zip ties and pepper spray as they stormed the campus at around 9.3-pm on Tuesday
In some instances, top police officials falsely labeled peaceful marches organized by well-known neighborhood activists as the work of violent extremists.
Before officers arrived at Columbia, the White House condemned the standoffs there and at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where protesters had occupied two buildings for more than a week until officers with batons intervened early Tuesday and arrested 25 people.
President Joe Biden believes students occupying an academic building is ‘absolutely the wrong approach,’ said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
Later, former President Donald Trump called into Sean Hannity´s show on Fox News Channel to comment on Columbia´s turmoil as live footage of police clearing Hamilton Hall aired. Trump praised the officers.
‘But it should never have gotten to this,’ he told Hannity.
The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to Israel´s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.
As cease-fire negotiations appeared to gain steam, it wasn´t clear whether those talks would inspire an easing of protests.
Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests as anti-Semitic, while Israel´s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition.
Although some protesters have been caught on camera making anti-Semitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.
On Columbia´s campus, protesters first set up a tent encampment almost two weeks ago. The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, arresting more than 100 people, only for the students to return.
Negotiations between the protesters and the college came to a standstill in recent days, and the school set a deadline for the activists to abandon the tent encampment Monday afternoon or be suspended.
Instead, protesters defied the ultimatum and took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, carrying in furniture and metal barricades.
Ilana Lewkovitch, a self-described ‘leftist Zionist’ student at Columbia, said it´s been hard to concentrate on school for weeks. Her exams have been disrupted with chants of ‘say it loud, say it clear, we want Zionists out of here.’
Lewkovitch, who is Jewish, said she wished the current pro-Palestinian protests were more open to people like her who criticize Israel´s war policies but believe there should be an Israeli state.
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