Hannah Fry, Terry Castleman
Wed, May 15, 2024
Orange County sheriff's deputies form a line at UC Irvine on Wednesday after protesters entered the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall on campus. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Scores of police officers converged on UC Irvine on Wednesday as a pro-Palestinian demonstration escalated, with protesters occupying and barricading the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall, which is near their encampment.
The escalation of the protest began about 2:30 p.m., according to a university spokesperson. School officials have sent out two alerts telling students to shelter in place.
The building takeover was broadcast live on Instagram by several pro-Palestinian accounts. The videos showed a hectic scene as students clad in keffiyehs ran to and from the area by the lecture hall, setting up a wooden fence barrier, tents, signs and other materials.
"Avoid the area," read a campus alert. "If you are in the area shelter in place for your safety until further notice."
No classes were being held in the Physical Sciences building today, said Tom Vasich, UCI spokesperson. But classes were being held in other nearby buildings, two of which were locked down.
Law enforcement officers from across the region arrived at the university. There were as many as 200 on scene, a law enforcement source told The Times, from agencies including the California Highway Patrol, Orange County Sheriff's Department and police departments from Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Irvine.
People leave the protest area at UC Irvine. Protesters told The Times that the building occupation followed the suspension of students on the protest negotiating team. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The demonstrations came after students said members of the protest negotiating team were suspended by the university. “They forced our hand,” said a student who declined to give her name for fear of retaliation by the university.
Police gave a dispersal order shortly before 4 p.m., students said.
Sarah Khalil, a fourth-year student at UCI, said she was prepared to stand her ground and face arrest. “This cause is way bigger than any of us,” she said with tears in her eyes.
The moves by UCI police came after authorities removed camps at UCLA, Cal Poly Humboldt and USC. Protesters at UC Riverside and UC Berkeley had agreed to end their camps in exchange for concessions from the university.
Student representatives met with UC Irvine leadership two weeks ago to discuss whether the university would agree to their demands for divestment from companies with ties to Israel and weapon manufacturers in exchange for an end to the campus encampment. But talks were not fruitful, according to student organizers.
Protesters have asked for an end to “violent extremism” funding, amnesty for student protesters, a commitment to an academic boycott of Israel and removal of what the group calls “Zionist programming.”
On Tuesday, pro-Palestinian protesters at UC Berkeley removed tents on a central campus plaza in an agreement that appeared to end one of the largest and longest student encampments in the country as Chancellor Carol Christ said she would initiate a discussion about the university’s investments in weapons companies and the possible divestment from them.
Onlookers film as police descend on the Irvine campus Wednesday afternoon. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
On Wednesday, however, there were new developments at UC Berkeley as protesters occupied Anna Head Alumnae Hall, a condemned building on campus.
"This is an active crime scene, it is not nonviolent civil disobedience," said UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof.
He said that Wednesday marked the 55th anniversary of People's Park, and that protesters were "vandalizing an unsafe, boarded-up, fire-damaged building next to People's Park."
UC Irvine police called in multiple agencies. As many as 200 were on campus, according to a source. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
UC Berkeley officials said, however, they had "confirmed that the coalition with whom the university reached an understanding yesterday did not initiate today's action."
The Berkeley agreement joined ones at at least four other California universities and several across the country that forged settlements with activists to end campus encampments that some Jewish students say have included antisemitic signage and chants.
Although no schools have agreed specifically to divest from ties to Israel — a demand of protesters — each has indicated that it will explore proposals to tighten investment policies regarding companies that sell weapons.
Pro-Palestinian protesters link arms to form a blockade to the Physical Sciences build at UCI on May 15, 2024.A weeks-long pro-Palestine protest at UC Irvine demanding the university divest from Israel over the Hamas war took a tense turn Wednesday, May 15,2024, when protesters blocked the entrance to the physical sciences building in an apparent occupation of the facility. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)More
UC Riverside Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox signed off May 3 on an agreement to end the encampment at his campus. It was the first such agreement at a UC campus and said that the university would publicly make a “full disclosure” of the companies and size of its investments.
It also said that UC Riverside would form a task force that includes students and faculty to “explore the removal of UCR’s endowment from the management of the UC investments office and the investment of said endowment in a manner that will be financially and ethically sound for the university with consideration to the companies involved in arms manufacturing and delivery.” The task force would present its findings to the board of trustees by March 21, 2025.
Times staff writers Richard Winton and Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Pro-Palestinian protesters occupy building, create encampment at UC Irvine
Marc Sternfield
Wed, May 15, 2024
Police responded to the campus of the University of California, Irvine, on Wednesday, where pro-Palestinian demonstrators overtook a building and constructed a barricaded encampment.
Video streamed to the Instagram handle “ucidivest” shows protesters hanging banners from the Physical Science Lecture Hall and scrambling to pitch tents.
In a text message alert, UCI called it a “violent protest” and urged students to avoid the area. “If you are in the area, shelter in place for your safety until further notice,” the university said.
The protest encampment at UC Irvine on May 15, 2024. (KTLA)
The protest encampment at UC Irvine on May 15, 2024. (KTLA)
Protesters set up an encampment on the campus of UC Irvine on May 15, 2024. (KTLA)
Protesters set up an encampment on the campus of UC Irvine on May 15, 2024. (IG: ucidivest)
The protest encampment at UC Irvine on May 15, 2024. (KTLA)
Dozens of law enforcement officers were seen staging in a campus parking lot and creating a skirmish line a short distance from the demonstrators, who were positioned both inside and outside of the encampment’s wood palette barriers.
Last week, the university suspended several student protesters for what it called “multiple conduct violations” following another campus demonstration. Some of those suspended were members of a group that had been negotiating with UCI administrators over their demands.
The demonstrators are calling for the university to divest from its relationships with Israel over the Jewish state’s military offensive in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
Universities across California and the nation have seen similar demonstrations. At UCLA, police dismantled an encampment on Royce Quad in early May that was the site of escalating tensions and violence. A similar scene unfolded at USC, a private university, roughly a week earlier.
Both crackdowns resulted in dozens of arrests.
This is a developing story. Stay with KTLA 5 News for updates.
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