Tensions high at UCLA as police order pro-Palestinian protesters to leave
Al Jazeera
Students staying put on US campus despite inevitability of ‘militarised police invasion’, ready to face arrest.
Tensions are high at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus where hundreds of police in riot gear have deployed in force, ordering peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters to leave or face arrest, less than 24 hours after their encampment was attacked by a violent pro-Israel mob.
But hundreds of students, surrounded by police, were refusing to budge as the standoff continued into early Thursday.
“The posture inside the camp is defensive,” UCLA professor Danielle Carr told Al Jazeera. “The students know that we are facing the possibility of serious violence from the police and counter-protesters, but … my understanding is that they will not resist arrest.”
On Wednesday evening, campus authorities had broadcast a message to student protesters inside the Gaza solidarity camp telling them that they were in an illegal encampment and they had to disperse immediately or face arrest, said Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from the scene.
“It might look peaceful, but it is pretty tense,” Reynolds said. “It looks like the police are going to start arresting the students who haven’t actually committed any violent acts whatsoever.”
