While American universities have been the scene of pro-Palestinian rallies since mid-April, clashes broke out on the night of Tuesday April 30 to Wednesday May 1 on the campus of the UCLA University (for “University of California at Los Angeles ), in Los Angeles, according to images broadcast by American televisions and newspapers.
“Shortly before midnight [9 a.m. in Paris], a large group of counter-protesters, wearing black clothes and white masks, arrived on campus and tried to destroy the barricades” erected to protect the encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators , writes the Los Angeles Times. “Videos show that fireworks were set off, at least one of which was towards the camp,” continues the local newspaper, relying in particular on images published online by people present on site and independent journalists. Los Angeles riot police were called, the university said. She “immediately responded to [university authorities’] call for help on campus,” a city spokesperson reported, and arrived on scene around 2 a.m. (11 a.m. Paris).
“Terrifying acts of violence took place at the encampment [Tuesday] evening… We are sickened by this senseless violence that must stop,” Mary Osako, UCLA’s provost of communications, told the Los Angeles Times. Shortly before, the authorities of the American university had declared the encampment “illegal and in violation of the rules of the university”, exposing students who did not leave to suspension or even expulsion from the institution .
American student anger has spread for two weeks from the large universities of the East Coast to those of California via the South and the Center, recalling the demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the end of the 1960s. On the night of Tuesday in on Wednesday, the New York police dislodged the pro-Palestinian students holed up in a building at Columbia University, and Brown University, in the northeast of the United States, announced the dismantling of a “camp” in exchange of the promise that the board would decide on possible “divestments from companies that enable the genocide in Gaza and profit from it”.
