2024 University of California, Los Angeles pro-Palestinian campus occupation

On April 25, 2024, a student protest began at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to protest the administration's investments in Israel. The occupation, self-titled as the 'Palestine Solidarity Encampment', was a part of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses campaigning for divestment from Israel. The encampment was attacked multiple times by counter protestors, leading to clashes. On May 2, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) raided and dismantled the encampment, arresting the protestors and ending the occupation.

Background
On April 17, pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia University began an occupation protest on its campus to protest Columbia's investments in Israel amid the Israel–Hamas war. The protest, as well as its forced dismantling (when university president Minouche Shafik authorized the New York City Police Department to storm the campus and conduct mass arrests) sparked a series of nationwide protests and encampments for divestment.

UCLA has associations with organizations that invest in Israeli manufacturing companies. UCLA also has investments in BlackRock, which does business in Israel and has holdings in weapon manufacturing companies.

April 25
On April 25, students and faculty set up the encampment. They released a list of demands, including UCLA's divestment from companies that profit off the Israel-Hamas War, a disclosure of where the UC system is investing tuition money, the UC system to cut ties with city police departments who police student activism, an end to academic collaboration with institutions that are profiting and collaborating with Israel, and an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

Protestors erected wooden barricades and displayed signs that included slogans such as "UCLA says Free Palestine" and "UC has blood on its hands." The 'Palestine Solidarity Encampment' group was set up, which includes the UC Divest Coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace. IfNotNow was also present at the protests. The group posted online a list of demands for the administration, which includes divestment from Israel, calling for a ceasefire, and an academic boycott of Israel.

Members of pro-Israel groups included the Israeli American Council and United Jewish Coalition and other protestors in support of Israel surrounded the encampment. Some minor skirmishes between protestors were reported.

April 26–29
On April 26, the administration released a statement saying that it prioritized the safety of students and minimizing disruption, but also that it supported free expression on campus and was therefore not requesting law enforcement at that time. UCLA police patrolled the perimeter of the encampment. Some Israeli and Jewish students said they felt uncomfortable. Pro-Palestinian protestors requested UCLA to not send in police. On April 27, pro-Israel counter-protestors raised more than $50,000 in three hours on GoFundMe to fund a screen and loudspeaker. Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of American comedian Jerry Seinfeld also posted on her social media account on Instagram that she had donated $5,000 to the counter-protestors.

On April 28, the administration created a physical barrier to separate dueling protestors. Later in the day, demonstrators broke through and a confrontation ensued. It was unclear what side broke through the barrier, and the administration condemned the violence. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators also clashed with police. Members of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice held a solidarity demonstration with the pro-Palestinian protestors.

On April 29, faculty organized a walkout in solidarity with the protestors. Pro-Palestinian protestors set up metal barricades and appointed guards to block access to counter-protestors and media. Counter-protestors shouted through microphones and played loud music in front of the encampment early in the day. Later, a group of around 60 counter-protestors tried to breach the encampment, which led to heavy clashes. Security and UC officers with riot gear briefly intervened to separate the protestors. During clashes, counter-protestors released mice at the encampment. In response to the attack, the Council on American–Islamic Relations called on UCLA administration to investigate it as a hate crime.

April 30
A brief altercation between campus security and a disabled man occurred when the man tried to walk through a pathway blocked by the protest. The man said he was aware of the demonstrations, but didn't know that major pathways were blocked. Later in the afternoon, the UCLA Chancellor Gene Block shared a message with the UCLA community addressing the situation, stating that UCLA was increasing security presence on campus, removing barriers established by the encampment, and that the "student conduct process has been initiated, and could lead to disciplinary action including suspension or expulsion" for any UCLA faculty, staff or students involved.

Video of a female Jewish student's bleeding head went viral. The student was admitted to the ER and is reported to be in stable condition. The victim identified herself as Elinor Hess and claimed that she was shoved down when she reached to grab her flag, which fell down, and was kicked and pulled by the hair before she lost consciousness.

In an email to students, UCLA announced the extended closure of Powell Library and Royce Hall from 5:00pm Tuesday, April 30. The facilities are planned to reopen Monday, May 6.

Counter-protester attack
On May 1, around 10:50 PM, a pro-Israeli group attacked the pro-Palestinian protesters' camp for nearly four hours, attempting to breach the barricades surrounding the encampment. The attackers, reported to have come from outside campus, carried Israeli flags and assaulted students with sticks, stones, poles, metal fencing, and pepper spray. They played loud audio of a child crying, threw wood and a metal barrier into the camp, and threw at least six fireworks into the encampment, including one directly at a group of protesters carrying injured people.

A video investigation suggested pro-Palestinian protesters did not initiate any confrontation but acted in defense. The counter-protesters called for a "Second Nakba", referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, and played the Israeli national anthem and Harbu Darbu on loudspeakers during the attack. According to The Guardian, counter-protesters included several far-right activists involved in anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-vaccine campaigning. The Boston Review reported that zionist counter-protestors joined forces with white supremacists and Neo-Nazis, and that "One neo-Nazi was heard shouting, 'we’re here to finish what Hitler started,' without any apparent protest from the self-identified Zionists."

Security personnel hired by UCLA refused to intervene and stood aside during the attack. LAPD officers arrived by 1:45 AM but waited at least an hour before intervening. None of the counter-protesters were known to have been arrested by May 3, though UCLA was investigating the attackers with help from LAPD and FBI by May 7. Witnesses said the LAPD intervened after nearly four hours of attacks by the pro-Israel counter-demonstrators. One counter-protester said, "We were all waiting for the LAPD to show up and they never did". Both the LAPD and the university's hired security faced criticism for not protecting the encamped students. An Al Jazeera English correspondent on the scene reported, "There seems to be absolutely no police intervention whatsoever."

Fifteen people were reported injured, including one who was hospitalized. Student journalists for the Daily Bruin described being targeted by the counter-protesters and punched, kicked, and beaten. It was reported that law enforcement did not track injuries related to the attack, but the encampments' organizers said that more than 150 students were "assaulted with pepper spray and bear mace" and that at least 25 were transported to local emergency rooms for fractures, severe lacerations, and chemical-induced injuries.

On May 15, CNN identified a number of the violent counter-protesters, but UCLA police refused to comment on whether they would press charges. A report found one counter-protest group raised funds through GoFundMe, with Jessica Seinfeld and Bill Ackman donating $5,000 and $10,000, respectively.

Forced disbandment
In the evening, law enforcement in riot gear issued a dispersal order to over a thousand people who had gathered in support of the encampment, stating anyone who refused to leave could face arrest.

Following the previous night's dispersal order, an estimated 200 to 400 students remained on campus. At around 1:30 a.m. on May 2, LAPD officers broke into the encampment but were forced to retreat after they were outnumbered. After an hour, officers of the California Highway Patrol equipped in riot gear arrived at the campus to confront the protesters. Police reportedly fired a stun grenade, surrounded the encampment from all four sides, and began tearing down its walls,  arresting 132 protestors, reportedly including at least one professor. Police were seen firing rubber bullets at the student protestors and methodically dismantling the encampment, that was cleared by the morning.

May 6
On the morning of Monday, May 6, social media users on X as well as reporters from the Daily Bruin started to report that members of UCPD were detaining and arresting pro-Palestine protestors in Parking Lot 2 in response to calls by protestors for a sit-in protest at Moore Hall. According to the newspaper, 43 protestors including UCLA students were arrested on the scene. On the same day, UAW Local 4811, the chapter representing over 48,000 University of California workers under the United Auto Workers union, issued its strike authorization vote to be held between May 13 and 15.

June 10
Protesters set up an encampment at Dickson Plaza and dyed a nearby fountain red. Police arrested 25 people. Protesters had attempted to set up an encampment at Janns Steps. When they were dispersed by police, they attempted to set up an encampment at Kerckhoff patio. After the police warned them again, they attempted to set up at Dodd Hall and the School of Law where police shot rubber bullets at them.

Responses
Following the attack on the encampment by Pro-Israel counter-protestors on May 1, California governor Gavin Newsom stated, "The limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA last night was unacceptable — and it demands answers". Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released a statement saying police had responded to a request from UCLA administration, later describing the violence as "abhorrent". Following the police storming of the encampment, U.S. president Joe Biden said he supported law enforcement, stating, "We’re a civil society and order must prevail".

Criticizing Biden's rhetoric, Piper French wrote in The New York Review of Books that "Biden and university leaders like Block were calling this wave of campus protest violent not because it posed any inherent threat to anyone's safety but because they saw it as an intolerable provocation—one that might, in turn, require violence to quell."

In late-May 2024, the UCLA chief of police was removed from his post.

At UCLA
In a statement, the protesters said, "The life-threatening assault we face tonight is nothing less than a horrifying, despicable act of terror. Law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help." One student speaking to CNN stated, "The police the university had hired, the private security guards, stared and watched as this happened". Another student speaking to The Guardian said after being twice hit over the head, he "was left with stitches on his forehead and 14 staples in the back of his head". The editorial board for the student newspaper, The Daily Bruin, released an op-ed condemning the university for failing to protect students and the encampment.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block released a statement denouncing the May 1 conflict, stating "this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable", describing the counter-protesters who attacked the encampment as "instigators".

Faculty condemned the lack of a response to the counter-protestors, including Ananya Roy, who said, "The word is out they can do this repeatedly and get away with it. I am ashamed of my university. A UCLA professor of Jewish history, David N. Myers, stated that "some of the attackers appeared to be carrying Israeli flags and other pro-Israel symbols", in reference to the violence.

The administration released an email statement saying that they were "sickened" by the violence and that they called law enforcement to help control the situation. UCLA cancelled classes and alerted students that there would be "law enforcement presence stationed throughout campus." Remote instruction was announced for Thursday and Friday classes. Faculty members of the History Department released a statement condemning the violent attacks on the students and called for the UCLA Chancellor as well as the UC President to be held accountable for their inaction. The Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapter at UCLA called for a labor strike on May 2, 2024. UAW Local 4811, the union representing over 48,000 academic workers at the 11 UC campuses announced that it would hold a strike authorization vote within a week in response to the violence against students at UCLA. The UCLA branch of Hillel International, an organization that supports Jewish life and Israel on student campuses released an unsigned statement condemning the violent attack on all students and requesting off-campus Jewish community to stay away from on-campus protests.

On May 16, the UCLA Faculty's Academic Senate voted on a no confidence vote and resolution to censure Chancellor Block over his handling of the violence committed by counterprotesters against the encampment on April 30. Both resolutions were defeated with 43% votes in favor of no confidence, and 50% in favor of censure.

On May 22, the UCLA Police Chief John Thomas, who was under intense criticism for the slow response to the violence against the encampment on April 30, was removed and replaced while the University studies its security procedures.

Legal proceedings
On May 24, the UCLA Police Department arrested an 18-year old Beverly Hills High School student named Edan On on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Police said that On was recorded attacking the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA during the pro-Israel counter-protest. On was booked on a felony charge and held on a $30,000 bail. CNN had identified On along with other counter-protesters through a review of hundreds of hours of videos, social media posts and interviews. The UCLA Police Department also conducted their own investigation which included interviewing victims and witnesses and reviewing security camera footage and social media videos from members of the public and media.

Gene Block Congressional testimony
On 23 May 2024, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block testified at the Education Committee in the US House. During Block's testimony, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar stated, "You, the UCLA leadership and law enforcement stood by for hours as the mob of agitators gathered near the encampment with the clear intention to cause violence".

Media coverage
In an op-ed in The Guardian, activist Judith Levine criticized U.S. media coverage of the counter-protester attack, particularly outlets' refraining from assigning blame and for using the passive voice.

On May 1, the day after the counter-protester violence, Dr. Phil filmed segments for his syndicated talk show at the encampment.

On May 16, CNN published an investigative piece were they attempted to identify those that participated in the attack on the encampment, based on posted social medial, footage and interviews. At least one individual was identified by name by the piece, whose mother confirmed him to be a participant to CNN and on her Facebook account and praised his actions, although later denied that he had been at the encampment. On May 23, the UCLA Police Department arrested the 18-year-old man identified in the story on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, a felony charge. The man was “was seen on video assaulting encampment occupants with a wooden pole” according to a statement released to CNN.