Pro-Palestinian encampment grows on UCLA campus
One day after nearly 100 people were arrested following pro-Palestine protests on the campus of USC, a similar demonstration took place Thursday on the Westwood campus of UCLA, with an encampment of tents going up outside Royce Hall.
Also Thursday, citing “new safety measures,” USC announced it is canceling the “main stage” commencement ceremony that had been planned for May 10. The university will continue to hold “dozens” of smaller commencement events, including the individual school ceremonies in which graduates are announced and walk across the stage to receive their diplomas.
At UCLA, the “Palestine Solidarity Encampment” encampment began with about a dozen protesters about 4 a.m. and swelled to include about 1,000 activists and spectators by early evening.
Protesters erected a sign displaying their demands for the university at the entrance to the encampment zone. This included a call to divest from companies that are “complicit in genocide,” sever all UC-wide connections to Israeli universities and call for an immediate cease-fire and “end to the occupation and genocide in Palestine.”
“We are not leaving until our demands are met,” said Kenza, a protest organizer and third-year student who did not want her last name to be shared for fear of retaliation from the university.
“The conditions of the ongoing genocide in Gaza have gotten to such a point that our complicity stops us from sleeping,” she said, “we suffocate from the blood on our hands and the money that means we are aiding and abetting in the genocide of the Palestinian people.”
L.A. Police Department police helicopters circled above the encampment, while campus safety officers were stationed around it.
Organizers of the protest identified themselves as UCLA students and established rules about who can enter the encampment zone — protesters had to agree to a code of conduct and members of the media were allowed
and before entering many other large venues,” according to the university.
Details of the ticketing process will be posted online by Tuesday, officials said. Information on parking, disability accommodations, safety measures and the expected code of conduct are available at USC's 2024 commencement website.
The cancellation of the school's 141st main graduation ceremony was met with mixed emotional reactions. Online, some noted that many of these graduates also missed their 2020 ceremonies in-person due to the coronavirus pandemic. Others said many students were “robbed” of a fair college experience and demanded USC refund tuition.
Class of 2024 graduate Katherine Wedekind, 21, was “shocked” to hear about the commencement news. She said that after not being able to have a high school graduation due to COVID-19, her USC graduation also being canceled was “a blow.”
“I couldn't believe it — I just never thought this was even a possibility,” said Wedekind, who will receive an undergraduate degree in health and human sciences and a master's degree in health administration. “We're also the only school going through a canceled graduation because of these protests so far. It definitely feels like deja vu, and is bringing up a lot of the same pain of a past major life event being canceled to look in, but not enter.
Participants erected a makeshift wooden fence alongside the encampment and displayed signs with slogans such as “UCLA Says Free Palestine,” “Blood on the UC Hands” and “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.”
Kenza said they were acting in solidarity with those fighting for liberation for Palestinians and with other student protesters who have established similar encampments at universities across the U.S,. including Columbia, MIT and UC Berkeley.
UCLA officials were keeping an eye on the demonstration.
“Our top priority is always the safety and well-being of for me.”
Wedekind said she hopes her school will take the backlash seriously and reverse some of the decisions they have made that's already caused a media storm.
“I think (USC) administration has been rushing decisions that are really rash, without thinking about the impact,” she said. “These decisions keep building off the previous ones, making the situation worse and worse.”
Ed Hasan, a class of 2018 alum, said he was “embarrassed to be affiliated” with USC following its announcement. Canceling the main graduation, he said, is “ridiculous and disappointing.”
“They're taking away a very special moment — a USC graduation is a different feeling,” Hasan said. “It would break my heart if that were me or one of my kids. … USC's actions just don't add up to me.”
The news came a day after police said 93 people were arrested on campus following the daylong occupation by hundreds of proPalestinian protesters and supporters at Alumni Park. The L.A. Police Department said Wednesday that the activists were arrested for ignoring repeated orders to disperse the area.
The actions join a growing student-led movement across college campuses nationwide that seeks to have schools support a permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. our entire Bruin community. We are actively monitoring this situation to support a peaceful campus environment that respects our community's right to free expression while minimizing disruption to our teaching and learning mission,” said Mary Osako, vice chancellor of UCLA Strategic Communications.
Wednesday, hundreds of people took part in a proPalestinian protest and attempted “occupation” of Alumni Park on the USC campus. That event ended with 93 arrests of people who refused to disperse from the area on the private campus.
Three university faculty members came to the protest at UCLA with a large banner
Organizers of Wednesday's occupation had planned to camp in the park and stay there until police broke up the encampment that night. They demanded USC divest from Israeli-tied organizations, cancel Israeli studyabroad programs, and issue a statement calling for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The protest — which attendees say started peacefully but soon escalated — also was fueled in part by USC's recent decision to prevent valedictorian Asna Tabassum, a Chino Hills resident, from speaking at the main commencement ceremony, following complaints about Tabassum's online posts that critics called antisemitic, including a call for the abolition of Israel.
The activists involved in Wednesday's demonstration were both students and non-students, according to police and school officials.
USC Provost Andrew Guzman announced the decision earlier this month to bar Tabassum from speaking at commencement, insisting it was strictly a public safety decision, not a political one. Guzman said the school's decision to cancel the speech in no way diminishes “the remarkable academic achievements of any student considered or selected for valedictorian.”
Guzman's message did not go into details, but cited unnamed threats that came in shortly after her valedictorian that said, “UCLA faculty and staff, we stand in solidarity with our students.” Among them was Isaac Speer, a lecturer in the sociology department who came to support students' right to protest.
“I'm very concerned to see the LAPD helicopters overhead and campus already locking down access to buildings,” he said. “I'm very worried that there's going to be a very harsh police response and I don't want to see my students or any students have their free speech rights violated.”
Assemblymember Rich Chavez Zbur, D-Hollywood, whose district includes UCLA, issued a statement saying he “stands firmly with Jewish students” and was “appalled and disgusted” by displays of antisemitism on campus.
“Today's protest at UCLA included hateful anti-Semitic threats, calls for the violent destruction of the State of Israel, and statements praising the leadership of Hamas — a terrorist organization responsible for the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians alike,” he said.
Protesters chanted “Intifada now” and “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” slogans that many Jews find threatening and consider a call for the destruction of Israel and its people.
For much of the day, there was no formal counterprotest. However, several Jewish student onlookers expressed their discomfort with the protesters' messaging. announcement, according to reports.
“Because of USC's size and scale, commencement week is also the most challenging time of the year for our Department of Public Safety personnel, who work tirelessly and effectively to keep our campuses the safe places that they are,” the provost wrote.
USC students, faculty members and outside groups, like the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Los Angeles and the ACLU of Southern California, denounced the move, with many backing growing calls to “let Tabassum speak.”
In her statement, Tabassum said that what “should have been a time of celebration” has been overshadowed by controversy.
“This campaign to prevent me from addressing my peers at commencement has evidently accomplished its goal: Today, USC administrators informed me that the university will no longer allow me to speak at commencement due to supposed security concerns,” Tabassum said.
A statement by the Jewish Federation Los Angeles called the events happening on college campuses “simply disturbing.”
“Our Federation values peaceful civic discourse and free speech, but the vitriol, violence, and antisemitism we are witnessing are unacceptable. … right now, Jewish students do not feel safe on campus. Instead, campuses are lightning rods
“They are calling for an Intifada, which is a direct assault on the Jewish people,” said Eli Tsives, a freshman at UCLA.
He also cited the “river to the sea” chant.
Tsives said that many of his Jewish peers currently feel unsafe on campus. He stood outside the protest for about half an hour bearing an Israeli flag and wearing an IDF T-shirt to “let Jewish students know there's no need to be afraid.”
By early evening, a few shoving matches had broken out, but there were no reports of injuries or arrests. UCLA campus security worked to keep the two groups apart.
Kenza, the student organizer with the encampment, said that many Jewish students are participating in the protest and plan to hold Seders inside the encampment to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover.
“They (Jewish protesters) are safe among us,” she said. “The Palestinian Liberation Movement is a movement about human rights, about international law, about justice and about peace. We have not engaged in anything else.”
At UC Irvine, hundreds of people turned out to demonstrate in support of Palestinians on Thursday. UCI still plans to move ahead with its June graduation plans.
It's “business as usual,” a spokesperson said. for the conflict in the Middle East, drawing non-student agitators as well as students to foment a threatening campus climate,” wrote JFEDLA board Chair Orna Wolens and President Rabbi Noah Farkas. “When protests escalate to the point of endangering students, steps must be taken to restore safety.”
With community tensions continuing to build, USC announced last week that it was “redesigning the commencement program” and the May 10 ceremony would no longer include any outside speakers or honorees. Filmmaker Jon M. Chu had been scheduled to be the main speaker during the event. Four honorary degrees were expected to be presented to Chu, National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, tennis legend Billie Jean King and National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt.
The university said it will “confer these honorary degrees at a future commencement or other academic ceremonies.”
Wedekind said that as an Asian American, she was really looking forward to hearing Chu, who directed the box-office hit “Crazy Rich Asians,” speak at commencement.
“It's one of my favorite movies and having that speaker come and give us insight into the next steps at graduation would have been a really cool experience,” she said. “I think it's likely that a lot of these speakers backed out due to the blowback around the issue, but I'm definitely bummed about not having a chance to hear (Chu) speak.”
Early Thursday, a similar pro-Palestinian, student-led encampment was growing in front of UCLA's Royce Hall.
Also Thursday, members of USC's Advisory Committee on Muslim Life — convened by university President Carol Folt in spring 2023 to support Muslim students, faculty and staff — resigned from their positions in solidarity with Tabassum.
“In barring Asna's valedictorian speech Muslims on campus have received a clear message: their university will not stand by them if they merely seem likely to speak out against genocide, let alone standing by Palestinians who are undergoing a genocide,” committee members said in a joint statement.
City News Service contributed to this report.