Protestors Clash, Arrests Break Out On University Campuses in California

Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Israel protests continued at several university campuses across California during the weekend, culminating in numerous arrests at USC, with a major fight breaking out at UCLA.

Protests have been taking place at many university campuses nationwide for two weeks now. Tent encampments have formed at campuses from Columbia in New York to USC in Los Angeles. Pro-Palestinian protestors want Universities to divest from Israel, or redirect university funds away from programs in favor of or benefiting Israel into other areas. Protestors are hoping to influence federal policy on Israel over the number of civilians killed in Gaza since October.

Pro-Israel protestors, meanwhile, want universities to hold the line, as some Palestinian supporters have shown support for Hamas, a terrorist organization, or have used antisemitic language. Many are also reminding people that Hamas still has hostages, and that Hamas started the war with the October 7, 2023 attack and murder of 1,200 Israeli citizens.

Frustration over a lack of response by universities led to major protests and encampments to earlier this month. While these began at Columbia and Yale universities, they quickly spread. California, with historically protest-heavy universities like USC and UC Berkeley, soon had  major protests.

The protests grew both large and rowdy at many campuses. U.S. Senate Candidate Steve Garvey denounced the protestors as pro terrorist. At USC last week, protestors refused to move despite warnings from the LAPD, which led to 93 arrests. At Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, students occupied several buildings, leading to a campus closure for the rest of the school year. During the weekend, USC and UCLA also cancelled commencement ceremonies this year.

“We condemn the lawless behavior of the agitators and the current [protests have] nothing to do with free speech or freedom of inquiry,” said Cal Poly Humboldt in a statement over the weekend. “It is lawless behavior that has harmed the vast majority of our students whose education has been interrupted, damaged the reputation of our school, and drained resources from the accomplishment of our core educational purpose. As a result, we will be forced to pay millions to repair the facilities.”

Disruptions on campus

That isn’t to say that protests are everywhere. The majority of campuses in California have recorded no protests or encampments. Others have some protestors, but have only recorded a few. Even those with larger protests have not all been disruptive, with UC Berkeley recording a large number of protestors that have not gotten out of hand as of Monday.

“There are some students with strong opinions, but beyond that it has been quiet here,” said Cal Tech student David to the Globe on Monday. “You know, everyone has an opinion on the war, and that’s fine. But we all also want to graduate and work hard studying. We’re looking at Columbia and UCLA and just think that’s crazy. We value education. Many of our parents made sacrifices for us to be here. Many of us took out loans. Many of us are working to make ends meet. If there is a protests and the campus closes down, you know, it harms us and destroys those sacrifices.”

“It’s really just a handful of universities with big problems with protests,” Lisa, a student at CSU Northridge, told the Globe. “We care about the war, one way or another. But protesting isn’t a good way to go about it, and that’s why most colleges are just business as usual right now. We have classes. Education is our priority.”

Despite this, protests continued at Cal Poly Humboldt, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and USC on Sunday, culminating with a huge clash on the UCLA campus in LA. During the late morning, pro-Israel and Pro-Jewish protestors, led by the group Stand With Us, began peacefully protesting on campus. However, a large bloc of Pro-Palestinian students found out and met them on the lawn between Haines Hall and Kaplan Hall. While police and security held a barrier between the two groups, Palestinian protestors quickly slipped through, and both sides began physically clashsing. While no arrests were made, punches were thrown, with many of the students grabbing each other, including some pulling Palestinian scarfs off some of the protestors.

“This morning, a group of demonstrators breached a barrier that the university had established separating two groups of protestors on our campus, resulting in physical altercations,” said UCLA Vice Chancellor Mary Osako late on Sunday. “UCLA has a long history of being a place of peaceful protest, and we are heartbroken about the violence that broke out. We have since instituted additional security measures and increased the numbers of our safety team members on site. As an institution of higher education, we stand firmly for the idea that even when we disagree, we must still engage respectfully and recognize one another’s humanity. We are dismayed that certain individuals instead chose to jeopardize the physical safety of the community.”

Meanwhile, USC cleaned up damage and vandalism on campus on Sunday, including removing the graffiti from their Tommy Trojan statue.

Arrests, threats of suspension

Many of those observing the protest events of the past few weeks have said that they will likely die down after both graduation event dates and finals dates have passed by.

“As soon as there isn’t a reason for them to be on campus anymore, then universities will clear them out more forcefully,” researcher Sandy Crane, who studies college protest movements, told the Globe on Monday. “Vietnam protests always went out of campuses between the school years. But the thing with them is that Vietnam was large and overarching. These students with Israel, they narrowed themselves with divestments and ceasefire. Half the reason for them to protest on campus is gone as soon as spring classes end. They can join general protests after that, but those will not be nearly as passionate.”

“Or they can just fizzle out. The occupy protests in the early 2010s did just that. The ones that lasted to the Spring on campuses ended abruptly when the schools said to get off the campus or be arrested. The Palestinian protestors in this one, they are passionate and they are getting attention. But the universities are not listening to them. If anything does happen, it will likely be a token divestment. But that is a big if, because they also know that a bunch of donors would pull out if they did that and hurt their endowment. Schools that have these protests are likely going to string out out until the end of the Spring semester, then boot them. Columbia is threatening suspension right now if students don’t leave, so we may see more of that too, as well as arrests. Expulsion is not in the cards. At least not yet.”