Face-to-face classes will resume Monday at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), three days after being moved online following clashes on campus between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and police, the establishment announced.
Protests against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza have rocked American campuses for weeks, leading to police dispersals, mass arrests and a harsh call to order from the White House.
On Friday, UCLA said it had moved classes online after a large police contingent was forcibly evacuated from an encampment of mobilized students.
During the week, the situation had gradually worsened on campus, with clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators.
“The campus will resume its normal activities” this Monday and “plans to continue them until the end of the week,” indicates a press release published Sunday on the university website.
“Law enforcement officers are always present on campus to ensure security,” the press release added.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced “urgent changes” in campus security management, and that a new office led by former Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel would oversee them .
“UCLA needs a unit and a leader whose sole responsibility is campus safety to guide us through tense moments,” he said in the statement.
More than 2,000 arrests have taken place in the past two weeks in the United States, some of them during violent confrontations with police, accused of using excessive force.
President Joe Biden, who is under pressure from all political sides over the conflict in Gaza, stressed that “order (must) reign” on American campuses.
The Gaza war began on October 7 when Hamas militants launched a massive attack on Israel that left more than 1,170 people dead, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel has since carried out an offensive in retaliation that has killed more than 34,600 people in Gaza, mainly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
