UCLA police arrests 4 SJP activists after campus blockade
Four activists have been arrested in connection with an anti-Israel protest at UCLA.
On Tuesday, pro-Palestine demonstrators blocked campus access at the university while chanting, 'Hey, hey, ho, ho! The occupation has got to go!'
Four activists have been arrested in connection with an anti-Israel protest at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
On Tuesday, pro-Palestine demonstrators blocked campus access at the university while chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho! The occupation has got to go!”
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The Daily Bruin has since reported that the gathering was organized by the UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine chapter (SJP), with 150 activists forming a blockade at the school’s Bruin Walk.
In addition to protesting Israel’s “genocide,” the student activists renewed calls for the University of California to divest from corporations with ties to the Jewish state.
Invoking a “Nationwide Student Strike March Against Genocide,” UCLA’s SJP chapter told protesters to a mask was required in order to “mobilize.”
”With massacre after massacre in Gaza, airstrike after airstrike in Lebanon, storms and raids and olive trees uprooted in the West Bank, the UC turns a profit,” the student group posted to Instagram.
”Join us Tuesday the 19th, at 12PM in Bruin Plaza as we stand in solidarity with the [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299] strike and their campaign for their workers rights and divestment from Blackstone,” the group continued. “MASKS REQUIRED (KF94/KN95/N95 preferred).”
The Daily Bruin reported that Jeffrey Chobanian of the UCLA Police Department sent an email at 5:41 p.m. stating that the activists were in violation of time, place, and manner policy.
“The group violated TPM by obstructing access of community members, using amplified sound, and blocked traffic at Murphy Hall,” Chobanian reportedly wrote to the campus community.
At 7:30 p.m., the UCLA Police Department announced that three individuals had been arrested for “obstructing Bruin Walk,” with a fourth individual arrested for “interfering with an officer.”
”UPDATE: the four people unlawfully and violently arrested at UCLA yesterday were released at approximately 2:00 AM.,” the UCLA SJP chapter wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. “Time & time again, UCPD shows that it only serves to repress and violate us, not to protect us. COPS OFF CAMPUS NOW !!!!!!”
”They cannot silence our calls for divestment from companies and institutions complicit in the Zionist occupation, apartheid, and genocide of Palestinians,” the group added. “Our collective power intimidates the police who waited until after the demonstration when protestors dispersed into smaller groups to target and harass us.”