LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Mounting tensions on U.S. campuses boiled over yesterday when pro-Israel supporters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at UCLA, hours after police arrested activists who occupied a building at Columbia University and cleared a tent city from its campus.
Eyewitness videos from the University of California at Los Angeles, verified by Reuters, showed people wielding sticks or poles to hammer on wooden boards being used as makeshift barricades to protect the pro-Palestinian protesters before police were called to the campus.
The university canceled classes for the day on Wednesday, and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said the school would conduct an investigation “that may lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals.”
In a statement, Block said the “appalling” assault on pro-Palestinian demonstrators, which came hours after their encampment was declared an unlawful assembly by UCLA, was committed “by a group of instigators.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who returned to the city early from a trip to Washington, and California Governor Gavin Newsom each issued separate statements condemning the overnight violence and calling for an investigation.
Neither the Los Angeles Police Department nor the university answered queries from Reuters asking whether any arrests were made at the confrontation, which began around 11 p.m. local time and went on for two or three hours.
In New York City, scores of police officers in helmets and tactical gear arrested pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupying Hamilton Hall, an academic building at Columbia University.
Undergraduate students watching the extraordinary scene, many jeering at the police, fled into nearby buildings as police also cleared out a nearby protest encampment that had inspired similar protests at campuses across the country and abroad.