Supporters of Israel have attacked a peaceful Palestine solidarity sit-in at the University of California in Los Angeles. They waved flags in support of Israel while beating student demonstrators with sticks. It's the latest escalation in two weeks of demonstrations at college campuses across the country.
Sergio Olmos, an investigative journalist reporting from the UCLA campus, arrived on the scene just after midnight (about 07:00 GMT). He told Al Jazeera that he witnessed several hundred counter-protesters trying to tear down walls set up by the pro-Palestine encampment. He described counter-protesters throwing projectiles at the encampment, trying to hit the pro-Palestine protesters with sticks and in some cases throwing glass bottles.
He also reported a number of minor injuries and significant amounts of pepper spray used.
Olmos said it remained unclear if the counter-protestors “have a unified message other than they are opposing the Palestinian demonstration”. He adds that it had been the counter-protesters who had instigated the violence against the pro-Palestine protest encampment.
“It wasn’t like they were both coming out to brawl. It wasn’t mutual combat,” he said. While the pro-Palestine protesters were in their encampment, the counter-protesters came out and “started trying to take down the camp and engage in brawls” with some of them setting off fireworks, Olmos said.
“This group of counter-protesters were really pushing for a fight,” he said.
He added that police arrived after more than an hour and “stood maybe a few hundred feet away, just watching for an hour”. “The brawl went on for about two hours without any police intervention.
Once the police decided to move in, the counter-protesters left,” Olmos said. He added that police are trying to clear the area outside the protest encampment and there have been no large-scale arrests on either side.
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Great show tonight with me. You were awesome and fired up.
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