Videos shared last night from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) showed a group of Israel supporters attacking a pro-Palestinian protest camp with sticks and trying to destroy the barricades.
A man wearing a Palestinian flag was apparently dragged to the ground and beaten on the university campus.
UCLA Vice Chancellor Mary Osako said “horrific acts of violence” occurred last night and law enforcement was called to the university.
Speaking to the BBC, an activist described the attacks suffered by the pro-Palestinian group as “brutal” and said: “Tonight they have taken things to a whole new level and they began to incite violence.
The student, who wished to remain anonymous, said the pro-Palestinian group faced “Zionist attacks every night” and noted that his peers were “not physically safe”.
Things are reported to have calmed down at UCLA now, but there is still a heavy police presence in the area.
On the other hand, last night, New York police arrested pro-Palestinian demonstrators who took shelter in a building at Columbia University and dispersed a protest camp set up on campus.
The Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, said that around 300 people were arrested and he blamed outsiders for the events, but he did not provide concrete evidence in this regard.
Police said the intervention in Columbia was to disperse anti-Palestinian protesters who had taken over Hamilton Hall on campus.
Meghnad Bose, 31, a journalism graduate student at Columbia University, told the BBC that the New York police were “rude and aggressive” towards protesters.
The student protests were largely peaceful, Bose said, adding that he did not think police action was necessary.
At Columbia University, all classes are held online and students who do not live on campus are not allowed to enter.
Why are students protesting the war in Gaza?
Students have organized demonstrations, sit-ins and hunger strikes against the war in Gaza since October 7. Recently, they started setting up camps on university campuses.
These students want universities to cut financial ties with companies that have ties to Israel.
Students say that companies doing business in Israel or with Israeli entities are involved in the ongoing war in Gaza, and they argue that the universities that invest in these companies also involved in the crime.
Grants to universities fund many things, from research labs to scholarship funds.
But these grants usually include returns on investments worth millions and billions of dollars.
Where else do they complain?
The growing protests at Columbia University have prompted similar demonstrations at private and public universities in at least 22 states and the capital Washington, DC.
north east region: George Washington; Brown; Yale; Harvard; Emerson; NYU (New York University); Georgetown; America; University of Maryland; John Hopkins; Tufts; Cornell; University of Pennsylvania; Princeton; Temple; northeast; MYTH; The New School; University of Rochester; University of Pittsburgh
west coast: California Polytechnic State University; Humboldt; University of Southern California; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; University of Washington
midwest region: Northwest; Washington University in St. Louis; Indiana University; University of Michigan; The Ohio State University; University of Minnesota; University of Miami; Ohio University; Columbia College Chicago; University of Chicago
Right: Emory; Vanderbilt; University of North Carolina at Charlotte; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Kenny State; Florida State University; Virginia Tech; University of Georgia, Athens
Southwest: University of Texas at Austin; Russia; Arizona State University
non-U.S: Pro-Palestine activists also gathered on university campuses in Australia, Canada, France, Italy and the UK last week.
