Pro-Palestinian protesters launched a new encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, weeks after their initial camp was violently attacked by counterprotesters and then dismantled by police.
Photos of the new encampment showed at least two tents on the Kerckhoff patio Thursday morning. Students said private security and UCLA police were on site, apparently to keep the camp from growing.
“Please take the time to assess your risk before coming,” UCLA’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine wrote on social media. “We need support in numbers asap.”
The Los Angeles Police Department issued a citywide tactical alert Thursday morning to keep officers on duty in case authorities were called to the campus.
Officials blocked access to Ackerman Union, Kerckhoff Hall and Moore Hall because of the encampment. Morning classes held in those buildings were shifted online, according to a public safety alert issued to the campus.
“We’re aware of demonstration activity on the Kerckhoff patio. Our safety personnel are on site and actively monitoring the situation,” Mary Osako, vice chancellor for strategic communications at UCLA, said in a statement.
The encampment comes on the same day that UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who has led the university amid months of tense protests over the Israel-Hamas war, testified before a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.
Read more: ‘You should be ashamed,’ congresswoman rails against UCLA chancellor, during antisemitism hearing
Block told the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce that “with the benefit of hindsight, we should have been prepared to immediately remove the encampment if and when the safety of our community was put at risk.”
Dana Kopel, a second-year PhD student at UCLA who is a supporter of Palestinian solidarity actions on campus, said the congressional inquiry is “part of the larger process in the U.S. to frame antisemitism as a means to suppress student protest and the justification for the violent suppression of student protests at UCLA and elsewhere.”
Some Jewish students on campus said they felt intimidated by the initial encampment as protesters scrawled graffiti such as “Death 2 Zionism” on campus buildings and blocked access.
Kopel said students involved in the protests have “remained steadfast” in their support for Palestine and their goal to end the bloodshed in Gaza.
“So many of these students faced such intense violence just a few weeks ago,” Kopel said. “I think that’s why there’s a real effort to communicate that the risks of this are high. The university has made it clear and the government has made it clear that they want to suppress the solidarity movement at all costs.”
In early May more than 200 people were arrested on the Westwood campus as police dismantled tents and pushed out protesters in a clash that lasted hours. The police operation capped two days of upheaval on the campus that began when school officials declared the encampment “unlawful” and continued when a group of pro-Israel counterprotesters attacked the camp, with police taking hours to stop the violence.
Read more: A staggering two weeks at UCLA: Protest, violence, division mark ‘dark chapter’
UCLA officials have been sharply criticized over their handling of the situation. UCLA Police Chief John Thomas on Wednesday was removed from his post and reassigned over security failures that led to violence at the encampment. Thomas, who did not return phone calls this week seeking comment, defended his actions in a previous interview and said he did the best he could.
UCLA, like other universities across the country, has emerged as a hotbed of pro-Palestinian activism in recent months.
Students, faculty and staff have erected makeshift camps and demanded an end to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and that their universities divest from companies that sell weapons or services to Israel. Several camps, including one at Cal State Los Angeles, remain active. Others, including one at USC and another at UC Irvine, have been dismantled by police in recent weeks.
The response to the protests has stoked tensions between the academic workers union and the UC system.
The union announced Thursday that its ongoing strike would expand to UCLA and UC Davis on Tuesday. The academic workers contend that their free speech rights were violated when UC system leaders called on police to forcibly remove pro-Palestinian encampments at several campuses, including at UCLA.
Read more: UC seeks injunction to halt strike as academic workers threaten to expand walkouts
The union leaders have demanded protection for free speech on campus; amnesty for all academic employees, students, student groups, faculty and staff who face disciplinary action or arrest due to participation in protests; and divestment by the university from “weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza.”
According to the union, dozens of academic workers are still facing criminal charges, disciplinary action or both. Many are barred from campus, the union said, including campus housing and classes they may teach or attend.
The university has asked the state labor board to seek a court injunction to halt the strike, contending that the action is illegal.
“The University has made clear that it will treat all members of the community equally with respect to these violations and therefore, members of the university community who have been arrested for unlawful behavior or cited for a violation of university policy must go through the applicable review process, such as the student code of conduct,” according to a statement provided by the university system.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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