Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at University of California

This Wednesday (15), police removed pro-Palestinian protesters who occupied an auditorium at the University of California, Irvine, and later evacuated a student camp also favorable to the Palestinian cause that had lasted more than two weeks, witnesses said.

Officers from different police forces headed to campus after university officials requested help because protesters occupied the auditorium, prompting the school to classify the act as a “violent protest,” police and university officials said.

The operation lasted around four hours later, according to the university and witnesses interviewed by Reuters.

“Police retook the classroom,” UC Irvine spokesman Tom Vasich said by phone at the scene. “And the square (where the camp was located) was emptied by the agents.”

Vasich said there had been a “minimal number of arrests” and characterized the protesters as “begrudgingly cooperative.”

Hours before midnight, the university said that police activity on campus had concluded and that all classes would be taught remotely this Thursday (16), asking employees not to come to campus.

The demonstration in Irvine, about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, is the latest in a series of campus protests across the United States over the war in Gaza, in which activists have called for a ceasefire and the protection of the lives of civilians, also demanding that universities abandon financial assets of Israeli companies.

Protesters at UC Irvine established a camp adjacent to the auditorium on April 29, similar to those at other universities, which led to mass arrests and clashes with police in other parts of the country.

In a letter published later in the day, University President Howard Gillman said: “My concern now is not the irrationality of your demands. It is your decision to transform a manageable situation that did not require police involvement into a situation that required a different approach. I never wanted that. I dedicated all my energy to preventing this from happening.”

On Wednesday (15), around 300 protesters occupied an auditorium at a time when there were no classes, Vasich said.

Police formed a barricade while an officer warned the crowd over a loudspeaker that the act was illegal and that they risked arrest if they remained, local authorities said.

Students chanted war cries, played drums and raised banners as police formed lines around the building, Reuters testified.

Four other surrounding buildings were locked, and those inside were instructed not to leave, Vasich said, although the university later changed that instruction and instead advised them to leave.

Just before dusk, police stormed the auditorium and engaged in a tense standoff with protesters at the camp.

Police gradually advanced, pushing students back every few minutes, until officers charged into the crowd and made more arrests.

Before long, most of the protesters retreated, the police kept the square empty and littered with trash.

Since the day the camp began, Gillman said the university has been negotiating with students but has been unable to reach an agreement to find an “appropriate and non-disruptive” alternative location.

Gillman said the university cannot selectively decide to stop enforcing rules against illegal camping and that “the University of California has made it clear that it will not withdraw its assets from Israeli companies.”

“The camp protesters focused most of their demands on actions that would require the university to violate the academic freedom rights of faculty, the free speech rights of faculty and fellow students, and the civil rights of many of our Jewish students ”, said Gillman on Monday (13).