Police break up anti-Israel protest encampment, arrest 80 at UC Santa Cruz

Police in riot gear surround arm-in-arm protesters at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to remove an encampment and barricades where anti-Israel demonstrations have blocked the main entrance to the campus this week. Dozens were arrested, the university says.

Campus, local and state police swarm the protesters, and video from local news stations shows officers telling people to leave, then taking away signs and part of a barricade. There appears to be some pushing and shoving between police and protesters. Officers carry zip ties and appear to detain a few people.

Pro-Palestinian protesters met with massive police presence at UC Santa Cruz https://t.co/Ak8UtZGXE0 pic.twitter.com/k0S9Y7n718

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) May 31, 2024

“For weeks, encampment participants were given repeated, clear direction to remove the encampment and cease blocking access to numerous campus resources and to the campus itself,” Scott Hernandez-Jason, a spokesperson for the university, says in a statement.

“They were notified that their actions were unlawful and unsafe. And this morning they were also given multiple warnings by law enforcement to leave the area and disperse to avoid arrest. Unfortunately, many refused to follow this directive and many individuals are being arrested,” Hernandez-Jason says.

Approximately 80 demonstrators have been arrested, says university spokesperson Abby Butler. Chancellor Cynthia Larive writes in a letter to the community that some demonstrators remain at the entrance.

She says that the road blockades, “with fortified and chained barricades made of pallets and other materials, and other unlawful actions, disrupted campus operations and threatened safety, including delaying access of emergency vehicles.”

There are no reports of injuries. The university is holding classes remotely today.

Graduate student workers at UC Santa Cruz are continuing a strike that began last week over the university system’s treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters. The strike will expand to three more campuses next week, their union says.

The strikes began May 20 at UC Santa Cruz, and then extended to UCLA and UC Davis. Members at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego will walk out on June 3 and at UC Irvine on June 5, UAW Local 4811 says. Union members include graduate teaching assistants, researchers and other academic employees. The UC president’s office says the union is violating its contract’s no-strike clause and disrupting students’ critical year-end activities.

Protest camps sprang up across the US and in Europe this spring as students demanded their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that they say support its war against Hamas in Gaza.