Police and pro-Palestinian protesters clash at UCLA after new encampments erected

A violent scuffle broke out between police officials and pro-Palestinian protesters after new encampments were erected inside the campusof the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on Thursday(May 23).

The police officialswere seenwearing riot gear when they walked inside the UCLA campus before clashes broke out with the protesters.

In a joint statement,UCLA’sadministrative vice chancellorMichaelBeck and associate vice chancellorRickBrazielsaidthat school officials had“withdrawn consent to remain on campus for the demonstrators on Kerckhoff patio, asking them to disperse immediately.”

UCLAofficials said that the activities of the protesters,“including erecting barricades, establishing fortifications, and blocking access to parts of the campus and buildings,”had been disrupting campus operations.

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As per theUCLAofficials, those protesters who did not disperse willbe facinga seven-day suspension, arrest and disciplinary action.

School’schancellor Gene Block earlier testifiedabout an infamousprotest,which tookplaceon the campus earlier this month. As per KTLA, the chancellor said,“Tragically, it took several hours for law enforcement to quell the violence. With the benefit of hindsight, we should havebeen preparedto immediately remove the encampment if and whenthe safety of our community was putat risk."

Meanwhile, the union members said that their free speech rightswere violatedwhen UC system leaders appealed to police to use force to clear pro-Palestinian encampments from the campuses.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, a graduate student and union member, VincentDoehrsaid,“It’sa very fraught, violent environment that the administration has created here. The disruption to campus today is coming from administration shutting down this entire area due to an encampmentthat’ssimplyin the courtyard of one building.”

Students walk out of Harvard graduationceremony, chant‘Free, freePalestine’

Students, wearing graduation robes, walked out of the Harvard graduation ceremony on Thursday (May 23) chanting“Free, free Palestine”.

The incident happened a day after it was announced that 13 Harvard students, who participated in the encampments,wontbe given their diplomas alongside their classmates.

Watch:Pro-Palestine university protests spread from US to UK

Students also chanted“Let them walk, let them walk”during the commencement, as they referred to those 13 students who were denied their diplomas.

As reported by the Associated Press, student speaker Shruthi Kumar said,“This semester our freedom of speech and our expressions of solidarity became punishable".

She added that she recognised“the 13 undergraduates in the class of 2024 who will not graduate today".“I am deeply disappointed by the intolerance forfreedom of speech and the right to civil disobedienceon campus,"she added.

The students in the encampment had appealed for a ceasefire in Gaza andasked Harvard to divest from companies which have been supporting the war.

(With inputs from agencies)