UCLA faculty walk out as pro-Palestine demonstrations, counterprotests grow across California campuses

Dozens of UCLA faculty members walked out of class and marched to the “Palestine Solidarity Encampment” on Monday, April 29, to rally with student protesters who have occupied Royce Quad for the last five days.

The protesting teachers declared themselves part of the Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network, which seeks to support students’ right to peacefully protest and amplify their demands.

“We are out here to support students who are asking for UCLA’s disclosure of investments supporting the war in Gaza and divestment of UCLA commitments’ to the war in Gaza,” said Graeme Blair, assistant professor of political science at UCLA. “I think our role is to protect their rights to express that and share with the administration that we believe they should be allowed to be out here making these demands.”

🚨 Happening now: UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine stage a mass walk out in solidarity with student protesters. Faculty are supporting the students’ demands for the university to divest from companies that do business with Israel 🚨 pic.twitter.com/6rVRxmRpkD

— Clara Harter (@_ClaraHarter) April 29, 2024

In addition to the calls for disclosure and divestment, the student protesters are also asking the university to sever ties with Israeli universities and call for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Similar demands are being made by student protesters at universities across Southern California and the nation.

After protests smoldered at UCLA and USC over the weekend, campus demonstrations grew in scope around Southern California on Monday.

Student encampments were established Monday at Eagle Rock’s Occidental College, as well as UC Irvine and UC Riverside, and a protest took place at Cal Poly Pomona.

USC has closed campus access to the public in response to persistent protests, including an April 24 rally that culminated in the arrest of 93 activists who refused to obey LAPD’s orders to vacate the campus’s Alumni Park.

“My team and I are closely tracking the protests at UCLA today, and are in close communication with UCLA leadership and City officials to ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone on campus,” City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky posted on social media.

So far no arrests have been made at UCLA, however there was a skirmish on Sunday evening between dueling Pro-Palestine and Pro-Israel protests.

“UCLA has a long history of being a place of peaceful protest, and we are heartbroken about the violence that broke out,” stated Mary Osako, vice chancellor of UCLA strategic communications.

According to Osako’s statement the incident took place after a group of protesters breached the barriers set up to keep the two groups separated.

“The encampment was surrounded by Zionist agitators who were violent in harassing students,” said Vincent Doehr, a third-year PhD student at UCLA and encampment organizer who was present during the incident.

Nathan Mo, a Pro-Israel protester, also witnessed the conflict between rallies.

“There was a weakness in the barricades and they (Pro-Palestinian protests) were able to bum rush that weak spot and completely swarm and encircle us,” he said.

At USC, a pro-Palestinian activist vandalized the university’s famed Tommy Trojan statue over the weekend, spray-painting “Say no to genocide” on the base of the fixture. Organizers of the campus protests have denied any involvement with the crime.

The USC campus remained under restricted access Monday, with only a pair of gates opened primarily for students and staff only.

Just outside the campus, community activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, held a news conference calling on USC President Carol Folt to engage in an emergency campus dialogue with students over the Middle East conflict and students’ demands.

“The last week or so, there’s been chaos, there’s been turmoil, there’s been violence, there’s been destruction,” Hutchinson said.

He acknowledged that Folt issued a statement late last week responding to the protests, but he said she has not been “proactive” in working with students. He said an “emergency campus dialogue” is needed.

The call appeared to have come to fruition Monday afternoon, when protest organizers announced on social media that their negotiators would be meeting with Folt. No details were provided on the location of the afternoon meeting. Organizers said they would not be making any concessions and they would “refuse any normalization in our negotiations. Our occupation will continue until our demands are met.”

Folt sent a message to the campus community Friday saying the university had no choice but to call police during a mass protest last Wednesday.

At Occidental College in Eagle Rock, more than a hundred students gathered in front of the Arthur G. Coons Administration Center for the first day of their Palestine solidarity encampment.

Student organizers said they would remain there until the university meets their demands, which include divesting from companies that do business with Israel and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“If this is what it takes to end (the school’s) complicity than that’s what they need to do,” said Celine Hernandez, a student and supporter of the demonstrations. “I don’t want my school to stay silent so I hope this can actually start a change.”

Occidental Director of Communications Rachael Warecki released a statement noting that the university’s priorities are to keep campus safe and protect students’ freedom of expression.

Warecki said the protest so far has been peaceful and the university will continue to communicate its expectations for respectful student behavior.

In Riverside, a few dozen students had erected about 25 tents in front of the campus Bell Tower by mid-afternoon. Some wrote Pro-Palestinian messages with sidewalk chalk, while others did homework on the grass or spoke to passersby.

“We are starting Day One with more (participants) than we anticipated, and we are expecting that number to continue to grow throughout the week,” UCR senior Hibah Nassar said.

A statement released by UCR spokesperson John Warren said the university is “monitoring the activity to ensure the safety and security of the campus community.”

In Pomona, A crowd of around 200 Cal Poly students came together holding signs, waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs — a traditional Arab scarf considered a symbol of the Palestinian people.

Students entered the ground floor of the student center and chanted various phrases such as, “Disclose, divest. We do not stop, we do not rest,” and “Biden Biden, what do you say? How many kids have you killed today.”

Cal Poly Pomona released a brief statement noting that the college supports freedom of speech and the right to peacefully assemble. Officials implored participants to engage in a respectful manner. The protest dispersed without incident shortly before 2 p.m.

In Orange County, about 50 protesters encircled roughly a dozen tents set up in a plaza near the Physical Sciences Classroom building at UC Irvine, chanting “free Palestine.”

A list of demands posted on a sign at the encampment said the students want UCI to divest investment in Israeli businesses, and that they want full transparency and control of future investments.

The University of California system in a Friday statement said it opposed calls for divestment from Israel.

Staff Writers Michael Slaten, Mercedes Cannon-Tran, John Orona, Sarah Hoffman, as well as City News Service, contributed to this report

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