Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, made headlines on Thursday as they briefly formed a new encampment and took over a campus building before police officers in riot gear intervened.
The protests, which attracted hundreds of people, occurred on the same day that U.C.L.A. Chancellor Gene D. Block faced questioning on Capitol Hill regarding his handling of a similar encampment last month.
Approximately 70 protesters entered Dodd Hall, an academic building, and barricaded the doors with computer cables and jackets. Despite the ad hoc nature of the protest, with one protester acknowledging, “We’re building this plane as we fly it,” police officers in riot gear swiftly cleared the building just a few hours later.
Earlier in the day, protesters had set up a small encampment in the Kerckhoff Patio area, but dispersed after police intervention. They regrouped by Murphy Hall, eventually moving into Dodd Hall.
The demonstrations were part of a larger movement calling on the university to divest from companies supporting Israel’s actions in Gaza. The April protest resulted in over 200 arrests after pro-Israel counterprotesters attacked the encampment, with no arrests made on the counterprotesters.
Thursday’s protests were short-lived and relatively calm, with no reported arrests by the police. University officials stated that the demonstrators were disrupting campus operations by blocking off a section of campus.
Chancellor Block, who is set to step down in July, defended the university’s response to the April encampment during the Capitol Hill hearing. He expressed concern over the rise of antisemitism on campuses nationwide and pledged to investigate the attack on the pro-Palestinian camp.
The U.C.L.A. chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine criticized the hearing as political theater, accusing lawmakers of conflating calls for Palestinian liberation with antisemitism in an attempt to suppress pro-Palestinian movements. They condemned what they described as a “McCarthyist” effort to censor protesters.
