The pro-Palestinian student mobilization in the United States experienced an unprecedented episode of violence in Los Angeles since the start of this movement denouncing the war in Gaza.
Clashes broke out overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday at UCLA University, after counter-protesters attacked pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied parts of the campus for several days. What happened ?
Tear gas, bricks and fireworks
A largely peaceful pro-Palestinian encampment set up at UCLA last week was attacked by counter-protesters shortly before midnight local time. Videos show the camp besieged by dozens of masked and hooded people appearing to want to break the barricades. Several of them brandished long sticks: at least one person in the camp was hit in the head before falling to the ground.
“Pepper spray, tear gas, boards, bricks, fireworks – not firecrackers – were fired directly at the students,” Vincent Doehr, a doctoral student in political science at UCLA, told CNN and responsible for media relations for the demonstrators. “They threw paving stones, pipes at us, they tore up wooden slabs to throw them at us,” Kaia Shah, another spokesperson, told AFP. “Every time those who tried to hold them had their heads exposed, they slapped us, hit us.”
According to her, 25 students were hospitalized.
Late police intervention
UCLA security forces arrived about two hours after the clashes began, but did not initially intervene, an AFP journalist noted. Police in riot gear separated the two camps around 3 a.m. local time, pushing back the counter-protesters. “The limited and delayed response from campus law enforcement at UCLA last night is unacceptable and demands answers,” California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom responded on Wednesday.
A California State Police unit had to be deployed due to the incapacity of officers on campus, he added. Angus Johnston, a historian specializing in student activism in the United States at Hostos University in New York, worries: “The reason why the situation at UCLA is so disturbing is that we have already experienced this in the past, when the police and politicians allow right-wing extremists to attack left-wing organizers,” he told AFP, referring to “the civil rights movement” and that “against the Vietnam War.”
Campus police did not respond to requests from AFP. About fifty UCLA professors denounced the management’s responsibility on Wednesday. “The university has created a dangerous situation which came to a head last night,” said Graeme Blair, a political science professor. “They allow counter-protesters to be within 20 feet (6 meters, editor’s note) of this encampment,” he regretted, estimating that counter-demonstrations could be authorized elsewhere on campus.
Pro-Israeli?
According to several witnesses, some of the counter-protesters carried Israeli flags, but did not appear to be students. They add that many of them have passed through campus several times. “From the first evening, (those present at the camp) were harassed by increasingly large groups of counter-protesters,” Dylan Winward, a journalist with the Daily Bruin, the campus newspaper, told the BBC.
The hooded and masked attackers appeared to be “between 20 and 35 years old and did not look like students or people with the slightest connection to the university”, Daniel Harris, a 23-year-old jazz student, told AFP. , adding that he did not recognize any of the “Jewish students who support Israel” that he knows. According to Professor Elizabeth O’Brien, “provocateurs from outside” chanting slogans such as “USA! USA!” or “Fake News” are at the origin of the violence.
Relative calm
The clashes appear to have lasted several hours. According to paramedics, a man in his twenties was taken to hospital with head trauma. The day after a restless night, relative calm reigned on campus on Wednesday, with a strong police presence.
Inside the camp, around a hundred tents, pro-Palestinian students are still gathered. Classes were canceled and management issued a statement saying it had opened “a thorough investigation that could lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals.”