New York mayor says nearly 300 people arrested in Columbia campus raid; 30 arrested after clashes in Wisconsin.
Mounting tensions on U.S. campuses boiled over on Wednesday when pro-Israel supporters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian and anti-war protesters at UCLA, hours after police arrested activists who occupied a building at Columbia University and flattened a tent city on its campus. Police deployed in force on the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) campus on Wednesday morning after Israel supporters attacked a camp set up by pro-Palestinian protesters. Witness footage from the scene, verified by Reuters, showed people wielding sticks or poles to attack wooden boards being used as makeshift barricades to protect the pro-Palestinian protesters. Police were responding to UCLA chancellor Gene Block’s request for support, Zach Seidl, Los Angeles deputy mayor of communications, said on the social media platform X.
The Los Angeles Police Department said on X it was responding to UCLA’s request “due to multiple acts of violence within the large encampment on their campus,” to restore order and maintain public safety. By 5 a.m. they had erected a metal crowd barrier in front of the encampment and the area was quiet. Footage from the early hours showed mostly male counter-demonstrators, many of them masked and some apparently older than students, throwing objects and trying to smash or pull down the wooden and steel barriers erected to shield the encampment.
Some yelled pro-Jewish comments as pro-Palestinian protesters tried to fight them off.
“They were coming up here and just violently attacking us,” said pro-Palestinian protester Kaia Shah, a researcher at UCLA.
“I just didn’t think they would ever get to this, escalate to this level, where our protest is met by counter-protesters who are violently hurting us, inflicting pain on us, when we are not doing anything to them.”
White House condemns violence, occupation
The clashes at UCLA, in New York and elsewhere are part of the biggest outpouring of U.S. student activism since the anti-racism rallies and marches of 2020.
There have been confrontations with law enforcement and more than 1,300 arrests. In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies. This is all playing out in an election year in the U.S., raising questions about whether young voters — who are critical for Democrats — will back President Joe Biden’s re-election effort, given his staunch support of Israel.
.Source: https://www.cbc.ca/
Saturday, May 9, 2026
