EGN NEWS DESK
A bunch known as Stand With Us held a rally to point out assist for Jewish college students after days of typically intense pro-Palestinian protests at campuses throughout the United States, together with at crosstown USC. The rally was co-sponsored by the United Jewish Coalition in partnership with the Israel American Council and a number of other different organizations.
Members of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice additionally held an indication — that one to assist college students’ proper to protest, in response to a request from pro-Palestine protesters on the campus.
According to the Daily Bruin, members of each teams confronted off on the garden between Haines Hall and Kaplan Hall on Sunday morning. The fights have been in Dickson Plaza, the newspaper reported shortly earlier than 11 a.m.
Among the audio system on the pro-Israel rally was Elan Carr, CEO of the Israeli American Council.
“We will take again our campuses, from Columbia to UCLA and all over the place in between,” he advised the group, based on the Daily Bruin.
No arrests have been reported as of noon Sunday.
“This morning, a bunch of demonstrators breached a barrier that the college had established separating two teams of protesters on our campus, leading to bodily altercations,” Mary Osako, vice chancellor of UCLA Strategic Communications, stated in an announcement. “UCLA has an extended historical past of being a spot of peaceable protest, and we’re heartbroken in regards to the violence that broke out.”
City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky posted on X, “My staff and I are intently monitoring the protests at UCLA immediately, and are in shut communication with UCLA management and City officers to make sure the security and properly being of everybody on campus,”
The twin demonstrations picked up pace the morning after pro-Palestinian protesters reestablished an encampment in Alumni Park at UCI, the place final week 93 protesters have been arrested.
Overnight, the pro-Palestine protesters expanded their UCLA campus encampment outdoors to stretch from the highest of the Janss Steps to the east finish of Royce Hall.
The rising variety of pro-Palestine protesters has been met with an equally fervent group of counter-protesters who performed loud music close to the encampment and shouted chants about Palestine preceded by an obscenity, the Daily Bruin reported.
One counter-protester stomped on a Palestinian flag on the encampment whereas one other ripped posters off the outside of the encampment, the Daily Bruin reported.
As of Sunday morning, teams supporting the counter-protesters had raised $64,478 on GoFundMe to assist Bruins for Israel, greater than twice the preliminary $26,000 purpose.The makeshift cluster of greater than 50 tenting tents for the pro-Palestine protesters started forming early Thursday and continued to develop over the weekend.
Organizers of UCLA’s Palestine Solidarity Encampment, just like their counterparts at USC, issued an inventory of calls for calling for divestment of all University of California and UCLA Foundation funds from firms tied to Israel, together with a requirement that the college name for a direct and everlasting ceasefire within the Israel-Hamas conflict and a tutorial boycott by UC in opposition to Israeli universities, together with a suspension of study-abroad applications.
It was unclear whether or not all the individuals have been UCLA college students.
“Our prime precedence is at all times the security and well-being of our total Bruin group,” Osako stated in an announcement Thursday morning. “We’re actively monitoring this example to assist a peaceable campus atmosphere that respects our group’s proper to free expression whereas minimizing disruption to our instructing and studying mission.”
Southern California schools grapple with security and commencement amid Gaza protests
