At USC, arrests. At UCLA, hands off. Why pro-Palestinian protests have not blown up on UC campuses
LOS ANGELES — At the University of Southern California, Los Angeles police officers in riot gear swarmed the campus, arresting 93 pro-Palestinian protesters and clearing their tent encampment.
Across town at the University of California, Los Angeles, scores of Palestinian supporters set up about 20 tents, created a perimeter around their “Palestine Solidarity Encampment” and peacefully protested day and night — all without arrests, suspensions or intervention by campus staff, who watched from the sidelines. Private security guards with bikes separated the pro-Palestinian group from Israel supporters, and UCLA eventually added metal barricades after counter-protesters repeatedly tried to breach the encampment and in at least one case witnessed by the Los Angeles Times entered and shoved a woman to the ground.
The scenes this week illustrate starkly different responses to campus protests, which are sweeping the country as students at more than 20 colleges and universities have launched encampments, demonstrations and other actions to express solidarity with Palestinians, urge an end to Israel’s military operations in Gaza and demand divestment from companies that do business with Israel.
USC — along with
