Los Angeles mayor calls late-night attack by counter-demonstrators ‘abhorrent’ as footage shows people wielding sticks
Some of the students who were injured at the encampment on Tuesday night described their attackers as pro-Israel or Zionist counter-protesters. Video footage of the violence included some counter-protesters yelling pro-Israel comments as pro-Palestinian protesters tried to fight them off.
David N Myers, a UCLA
professor of Jewish history who watched footage of the late-night violence, said some of the attackers appeared to be carrying Israeli flags and other pro-Israel symbols.
Footage showed mostly male counter-demonstrators, many of them masked and some apparently older than the students. “I saw women as young as 18 and 19 punched in the face by 25- or 30-year-old men,”…´
Students described being attacked for hours with projectiles, fireworks and chemical agents.
A student said he felt comparatively lucky: “I had the ability to go to a hospital last night. Currently in
Gaza, there are zero fully functioning hospitals.”
The Los Angeles Times
reported that a group of security guards could be seen observing the clashes, but that they did not intervene.
while Los Angeles police arrived at the scene at about 1.40am, officers did not immediately break up the two sets of protesters, and the clashes continued for at least an hour,
“Counter protestors continue fighting in front of police line about 100ft away,” a CalMatters reporter
tweeted shortly before 2am.
“Law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help,” students with the UC Divest at UCLA group
said in a statement early on Wednesday morning
Pro-Israel counterprotestors started tearing down @UCLA encampment barriers and screamed "Second nakba!"
Not until nearly 3am did police take action: “Exactly 1 hour after arriving at UCLA, police move in closer and counter-protesters move away, leaving the encampment alone.” There were “no visible arrests”, CalMatters reported,
noting “counter-protesters have left”.