Police began dismantling barricades set up by pro-Palestinian students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) early Thursday to protest the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
• Read also: [EN IMAGES] Chaotic night: Clashes on UCLA campus near pro-Palestinian protests
• Read also: Pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill: they are not ready to break camp
The police, equipped with riot gear, removed grilles and wooden planks and several demonstrators were arrested, according to images broadcast by the CNN television channel.
Clashes broke out on Wednesday on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian rally on the campus of UCLA University in Los Angeles, according to images broadcast by American television.
Los Angeles police “immediately responded to the call for help on campus (from university authorities, editor’s note),” city spokesperson Zach Seidl wrote on X.
Protesters and counter-protesters clashed with sticks, threw objects at each other and shot fireworks at each other, the footage showed.
The clashes which began just before dawn pitted pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups, according to CNN.
For two weeks, many university leaders across the country have faced demonstrators, sometimes only a few dozen, who have occupied their campuses to oppose Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas.
Pro-Palestinian students thus established a camp in the heart of the UCLA campus, on a lawn surrounded by barricades.
UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block had warned, before these clashes, against the presence among the pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupying the campus of people from outside the university.
On Sunday, pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators, supported by many demonstrators from outside the campus, came to blows, with shoving and insults.
“Many protesters and counter-protesters practice their activism peacefully. But others use methods that are frankly shocking and shameful,” he wrote in a message posted Tuesday on the university’s website.
“We have witnessed acts of violence. These incidents have caused, especially among our Jewish students, deep anxiety and fear,” he added.
New York police on Tuesday evening dislodged pro-Palestinian demonstrators barricaded in a building at Columbia University, intervening manu militari in the epicenter of pro-Palestinian mobilization on American campuses.
