Nearly a month after their first encampment was cleared by law enforcement, anti-Israel protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles set up another encampment on school property, but it was short-lived. Police moved in quickly after it was established.
Occupiers set up the encampment Thursday morning as UCLA’s chancellor testified to Congress about the school’s failures to maintain a safe environment. Private security and campus police tried to isolate the camp by creating a perimeter and not allowing additional people, food, or water to enter.
‘They had been planning this encampment for a good amount of time.’
Anti-Israel protesters had been promising for weeks to take over a portion of UCLA after the first camp was dismantled in an hours-long operation by police. Other colleges have been cracking down on the camps as they create a hostile environment.
Other universities have managed to get occupiers to agree to dismantle the camps after agreeing to some or many of their demands to financially divest from Israel or participate in an academic boycott.
A few hours after the new camp’s creation at UCLA, police moved in to remove people after failing to disperse. Protesters clashed with police outside of the zone.
The protesters inside the zone quickly moved away from their intended spot and started to march through Dodd Hall. While some people started to leave, many in the crowd started a sit-in to occupy the building.
“I think when they leave campus for the summer, it will be in our streets. So many schools are doing this, that no matter where they go home to, there’ll be enough of them – and they’ll have more non-students assisting. They had been planning this encampment for a good amount of time. I’ve heard whispers while undercover for quite a while,” Cam Higby, a journalist with Today is America, told Blaze News when asked if he believed protesters will continue with camps on school property.
After giving his statement to Blaze News, Higby was accosted by the protesters inside the building and was physically pushed outside.
Another encampment, complete with barricades, has remained in place at the California State University, Los Angeles for a few weeks.
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