WATCH | After New York Clashes, Pro-Palestinian Unrest At California University

Clashes broke out on Wednesday on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, as dozens of universities around the United States struggle to contain similar pro-Palestinian protests.

Rival sides were seen clashing with sticks, and tearing down metal barricades, TV footage showed. Others were seen launching fireworks or hurling objects at each other in the dark — lit up with laser pointers and bright flashlights.

‘Officers have been deployed’

The Los Angeles police department said on social media platform X that “officers have been deployed, and are currently on the UCLA campus, to assist in restoring order”. The force had earlier said it was responding “due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment” after the university asked for police help to quell the clashes.

The unrest at UCLA comes after police cleared Columbia University’s campus in New York City on Tuesday and evicted a building occupied by pro-Palestinian student protesters. CNN cited the NYPD as saying more than 100 demonstrators had been arrested. Police climbed into Hamilton Hall via a second-floor window they reached from a laddered truck, before leading handcuffed students out of the building into police vans.

Columbia University

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik had said in a letter to police that the occupation of the school building was being led by “individuals who are not affiliated with the University”. She also asked the police to remain on campus through at least May 17, “to ensure encampments are not reestablished.” Writing on Instagram, the protesters slammed Shafik’s statement, saying “her use of the words ‘care’ and ‘safety’ are nothing short of horrifying.”

The weeks of demonstrations — the most sweeping and prolonged unrest to rock US college campuses since the Vietnam war protests of the 1960s and 70s — have already led to several hundred arrests of students and other activists. President Joe Biden’s White House had sharply criticized the seizure of Hamilton Hall, with a spokesman saying it was “absolutely the wrong approach.” Former US president Donald Trump on Fox News lamented the “anti-Semitism that’s just pervading our country,” and slammed Biden, his rival in the November presidential election for inaction.

Nationwide movement

The protests have posed a challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate. The unrest has swept through US higher education institutions like wildfire, with many student protesters erecting tent encampments on campuses from coast to coast.

In another of the newest clashes, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, police moved in Tuesday to clear one encampment, detaining some protesters in a tense showdown. Footage of police in riot gear summoned at various colleges has been viewed around the world. UN human rights chief Volker Turk voiced concern at the heavy-handed steps taken to disperse the campus protests, saying “freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society.”

(With agency inputs)