USC closes campus after pro-Palestinian protesters, police clash

Police in riot gear arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the College of Southern California after ordering the big crowd to disperse. Authorities additionally created a skirmish line as dozens of different protesters refused to go away on Wednesday night time.

Some folks cooperated and started strolling off campus, nonetheless, over 100 folks remained, together with a gaggle gathered in a circle and standing with their arms linked. Officers started surrounding the circle and the close by crowds started chanting, “We solely needed peace!” and “Palms off college students!”

By 6 p.m., a number of protestors within the circle had been arrested. Quickly after, others voluntarily surrendered. By 9:30 p.m., police confirmed round 35 protestors had been arrested for trespassing. A number of dozen extra are nonetheless being processed, LAPD mentioned.

The protestors remained principally peaceable all through the demonstration outdoors of a number of remoted incidents, one wherein a bottle of water was thrown towards the police line.

The protesters, who had been objecting to the continuing conflict in Gaza and Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas, claimed officers had been “RAIDING ENCAMPMENTS” and “VIOLENTLY ARRESTING” them, according to an activist’s account.

Video shared to social media by Los Angeles Instances reporter Angie Orellana Hernandez confirmed not less than one officer brandishing a baton after “officers put their fingers on a @USC scholar.” She later shared another video exhibiting college students surrounding a police automobile so it couldn’t go away the realm with a scholar that the protesters believed was wrongly detained.

Faculty officers finally closed campus by about 1:45 p.m., permitting solely college students to enter, as reported by NewsNation’s Nancy Loo.

A dispersal order was issued and Los Angeles law enforcement officials arrived on campus round 4 p.m. Officers wearing riot gear started dispersing the gathered crowds. Authorities confirmed that no officers or protestors had been injured throughout the demonstration and that, finally, 93 folks had been arrested throughout the late afternoon and night protest.

The heightened tensions come a number of days after USC canceled valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s speech, citing unspecified security issues associated to her social media exercise in assist of the Palestinian trigger.

Shortly after the campus conflict, Andrew T. Guzman, USC’s provost and senior vp for Educational Affairs, issued a press release saying the college “values freedom of expression” however added that it additionally has the “highest precedence and accountability is to guard the protection of our group and guarantee our educational packages and college actions proceed unabated.”

“[The protesters’] actions have escalated to the purpose of confrontation and have threatened the protection of our officers and campus group,” Guzman mentioned.

In response, the college reverted to its protocols for nights and weekends, when “people with correct USC identification or verifiable enterprise function” can enter campus, however others can’t.

“We wish to be clear that we reject speech that’s hateful and that causes hurt to others,” Guzman wrote. “In these difficult occasions, we name on the Trojan Household to keep in mind that each member of our group is deserving of respect, has the proper to be protected on campus, take lessons, and take part in different campus actions with out worry of harassment or bullying. It needs to be everybody’s precedence to deal with one another with kindness and care.”

Guzman’s phrases got here after an emotional morning and early afternoon on campus.

“There’s greater than 33,000 folks lifeless, there’s kids, there’s household, there’s dad and mom,” a USC scholar named Angel advised KTLA’s Lauren Lyster. ” I feel either side … we have to acknowledge that we have to put an finish to this as a result of there’s simply been approach an excessive amount of injury.”

On Tuesday, Al Jazeera cited the Gaza Ministry of Well being’s numbers indicating that “not less than 34,183 folks have been killed and 77,084 have been wounded” in Israel’s conflict towards Hamas, not delineating between combatants and noncombatants.

Some USC college students mentioned they felt intimidated by the protesters, together with Coby Russo, a Jewish Israeli.

“They’re yelling, ‘From the river to the ocean, Palestine can be free,’ which was federally deemed as antisemitic hate speech,” Russo advised KTLA 5 Information. “I don’t even know the way they’re allowed to be doing this.”

The Anti-Defamation League says the phrase is antisemitic and “is basically a name for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, territory that features the State of Israel, which might imply the dismantling of the Jewish state,” and it’s “lengthy been utilized by anti-Israel voices, together with supporters of terrorist organizations similar to Hamas.”

The U.S. Home of Representatives agreed, passing a bipartisan decision condemning the mantra as antisemitic earlier this month.

College students at a rising variety of U.S. faculties are gathering in protest encampments with a unified demand of their colleges: Cease doing enterprise with Israel – or any firms that assist its ongoing conflict in Gaza.

The demand has its roots within the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motion, a decades-old marketing campaign towards Israel’s insurance policies towards the Palestinians. The motion has taken on new energy because the Israel-Hamas conflict surpasses the six-month mark and tales of struggling in Gaza have sparked worldwide requires a cease-fire.

The Related Press contributed to this report.

Footage of the protest dispersal will be seen within the video participant above.