LOS ANGELES — Roughly 2,000 pro-Israel counter-demonstrators gathered at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) on Sunday to protest close to a “Palestine Solidarity Encampment” that was arrange final week on campus.
As they arrived, many needed to stroll a gauntlet of about 100 pro-Palestinian activists, a few of whom have been from the encampment. Local Black Lives Matter activists had additionally known as upon supporters to oppose the pro-Israel protesters.
Families, together with young children, endured the screaming, taunting, and banging of the pro-Palestinian mob — with no UCLA safety separating them.
One UCLA official advised Breitbart News the college lacked adequate personnel to supply safety for the pro-Israel protesters. However, there have been dozens of safety officers guarding the “encampment.”
Other entry routes to the central plaza have been blocked. One non-public safety worker advised Breitbart News that the activists’ personal safety guards, wearing fluorescent jerseys, had authority “over” her.
In different phrases, UCLA had successfully delegated safety to the pro-Palestinian activists — the identical individuals who have excluded media from their encampment, as Breitbart News reported Friday, assaulting journalists who dare to enter the general public area.
Inside the pro-Israel protest, the temper was festive, if tense. Proceedings started with The Star-Spangled Banner and Hatikvah, the Israeli nationwide anthem. There have been speeches by campus leaders and native Jewish neighborhood representatives, adopted by celebratory Israeli music, to which the group responded by singing and dancing.
Roughly 2,000 pro-Israel demonstrators protested reverse the “Palestine Solidarity Encampment” at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, April 28, 2024. (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
At the sting of the group, reverse the pro-Palestinian protesters, two pro-Israel protesters held pictures of the Israeli hostages — 133 of whom are nonetheless being held by Hamas, about 100 of whom are thought presumably to be alive.
Pro-Israel counter-demonstrators maintain up pictures of Israeli hostages as pro-Palestinian protesters maintain an anti-Israel banner, UCLA, Los Angeles, April 28, 2024 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
There have been a number of scuffles, as pro-Palestinian protesters briefly entered the pro-Israel crowd, and because the two sides confronted off outdoors the rally, with no safety in between them aside from the Palestinian activists in fluorescent jerseys.
At one level, a pro-Palestinian activist tried to grab an Israeli flag, and a struggle broke out that was shortly damaged up.
Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News
Pro-Israel demonstrators started taunting the various masked pro-Palestinian activists with chants of “Show your face!”
Many of the pro-Palestinian indicators have been radical, Islamist, or in any other case offensive. One activist on the Palestinian facet held up an indication that stated “Fuck Biden. Fuck the USA.”
An anti-American signal on the Palestinian facet as pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators conflict, UCLA, Los Angeles, April 28, 2024 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
The barricade across the “encampment” additionally had some offensive slogans, together with some that mirrored the anti-police rhetoric of the Black Lives Matter motion. One panel stated “Fuck UCPD,” referring to the campus police power — which has, to this point, allowed the encampment to proceed undisturbed.
An anti-police slogan on a picket barricade at the “Palestine Solidarity Encampment” at UCLA, Los Angeles, April 28, 2024 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators appeared to have vandalized UCLA property; one walkway had been spray-painted with the slogan “Say No to Genocide.” However, because the Daily Bruin, the campus newspaper, reported Saturday, activists at the encampment have been permitted to obtain massive deliveries of meals, and to make use of campus bogs.
There have been occasional moments of civil dialogue at the perimeters of the protest, although taunts have been much more widespread.
A professional-Israel protester and a pro-Palestinian protester debate one another on the sidelines of protests at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, April 28, 2024 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
UCLA is located within the coronary heart of probably the most pro-Israel areas within the nation, surrounded by Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Westwood, which have massive Jewish populations, together with Persian Jews who escaped Iran’s Islamic revolution.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the creator of the current e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now obtainable on Audible. He can be the creator of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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