You're probably wrong about the UCLA encampment
Far from being a cesspool of hate, the protest encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles was an inspiring demonstration of solidarity, community organization, and direct action.
Royce Quad: A History
The stage is set. Following the University’s inaction, thousands of irate students flood the historic Royce Quad on UCLA’s campus. Their demands are posted on placards and chanted in slogans. They refuse to leave until the University administration yields to a set of clear calls to action. Faculty members are compelled to meet with the students. Local newspapers accuse them of being Marxist agitators. While the school’s provost declares to the press that UCLA is one of the “worst hotbeds of campus Communism in America.” The year is 1934, and five students have just been suspended from UCLA’s student government for supposed communist ties. After intense pressure from the student body and weeks of reactionary hand wringing and vilification of the activists in the press, the students are reinstated. The incident earns UCLA the nickname “Little Red School House,” and starts a century-long reputation for activism on campus.
The University is, ostensibly, very proud of this reputation. After all, I only discovered this anecdote by happening upon the 2019 edition of UCLA Magazine. It was part of a series of fawning remembrances celebrating UCLA’s storied activist past. From the Red Scare to the Vietnam War through the end of Apartheid, UCLA set itself apart as a place where students formed the cutting edge of progressive politics.
Reviewing news clippings from these eras, it is clear that they were often viciously condemned in the press and by the University administration for their stances. It should come as no surprise, then, that the students who occupied Royce Quad this week in solidarity with Palestine and were violently assaulted by agitators—before being even more violently evicted by police—have suffered a similar fate.
From the Red Scare to the Vietnam War through the end of Apartheid, UCLA set itself apart as a place where students formed the cutting edge of progressive politics.
As student-led protests across the country are condemned by the press, by State and Federal governments, and by administrative officials at the respective schools, a picture has formed of student protestors as hapless, hate-fueled rioters targeting Jews and fueling wanton destruction.
After returning from a month in the Middle East, I decided to visit the UCLA encampment to judge for myself the validity of this interpretation. What I discovered was a peaceful, well-organized, and truly inspiring display of human compassion and solidarity.
Entering the Camp
Upon arriving at the encampment, I was immediately impressed by the massive show of community support that I witnessed. College students had emptied their wallets to provide helmets, safety goggles, N-95 masks, and flashlights for the protesters. Members of the community had driven hours from surrounding cities to bring blankets, water, ice, pizza, and medical aid for those inside the encampment. There was a line hundreds of yards long outside the camp, with people waiting to be checked in. I spoke to many of these people, and they all described a desire to do whatever they could in some small way to show their solidarity.
After returning from a month in the Middle East, I decided to visit the UCLA encampment to judge for myself the validity of this interpretation. What I discovered was a peaceful, well-organized, and truly inspiring display of human compassion and solidarity.
This overwhelming community and campus support immediately exposed one pervasive myth that the encampment was a purely astroturfed movement funded and enabled by radical backers like George Soros. Boogeymen like Soros act as a stand-in for the age-old Right Wing conspiracy of Judeo-Bolshevism: the reactionary, antisemitic notion that wealthy Jews sponsor Leftist and minority liberation movements to deliberately upset and then control the social order. It is not uncommon for this conspiracy to be invoked in regard to student protests.
Unfounded Allegations of Hate
Speaking of antisemitism, contrary to what is being parroted by talking heads on television and shared on social media, the environment I encountered was in no way hostile towards Jewish people.
I personally witnessed the organizers letting in several Jewish students into the encampment after putting them through the same vetting process they put everyone else through. Once inside, the place was literally packed with Anti-Zionist Jews, some of whom were organizers. These people were treated with great respect, and often elevated to positions of authority and influence within the camp. Signs saying things like “Not In Our Name” and “This Jew Stands Against Genocide” were commonplace in the camp.
The viral videos of pro-Israel agitators being turned away from the camp are mostly stripped of context. People were turned away from the camp, but nobody was turned away for being a Jew. The litmus test for entry was support for the Palestinian cause, and opposition to the actions of the Israeli government that most human rights groups, many NGOs, and the world’s leading humanitarian institutions have labeled as genocidal.
I personally witnessed the organizers letting in several Jewish students into the encampment after putting them through the same vetting process they put everyone else through.
Camp Organization
I was given a wristband that marked me as having been vouched for by someone in the camp, and was even allowed to take my camera inside even without official press qualifications. I was just gently asked to obtain permission before taking photos of anyone’s face. Immediately upon entering the camp, I was recognized by someone who had followed my activist work over the years, and she offered to introduce me to the organizers of the event.
Walking around the encampment, I witnessed a well-organized affair with lines of tents set up in a discreet fashion, lines of people helping set up barricades at the entrances, a medical tent, a tent for organizing donated goods, and a robustly staffed kitchen. There were multiple art stations where people were designing creative and beautiful post. These were taken to the plywood barricades and taped to the outdoor corridor of Royce Hall.
Every student I spoke to was uniformly kind, decent, brave, and inspiring. I was very moved by the fact that several of them recognized me and thanked me for coming, even though they were the ones putting so much on the line for this. And they were students, the people in the camp. I asked everyone I met whether they attended UCLA and with only three exceptions, they were all current students, grad students, or faculty. One of these exceptions was a college-aged Palestinian filmmaker, another was a nurse.
Every student I spoke to was uniformly kind, decent, brave, and inspiring.
This unraveled another pervasive myth that has been spreading which insinuates that the encampments consist mostly of outside agitators stirring up trouble. The people I met in these camps had a right to be there as students, and a right to make demands of their university administration.
This was not the case with the counter protestors. According to a member of the encampment security team who spoke with me on a condition of anonymity, “the counter protestors were primarily middle-to older-aged adults who did not attend the university but felt compelled to harass students demonstrating their support for the Palestinian people who are under attack by the US-backed Israeli regime.”
The students were extremely clear with these demands and spoke to the Vice Chancellor in the camp. After a drawn out exchange, the Vice-Chancellor claimed his hands were tied and left after about an hour after informing the students there was nothing he could do because the demands would have to be considered by the University of California Regents. The students said they already knew that and asked why they sent him at all. The Vice Chancellor had no reply to this. Soon after he left, the dispersal order came down, as everyone anticipated it would.
The counter protestors were primarily middle-to older-aged adults who did not attend the university but felt compelled to harass students demonstrating their support for the Palestinian people who are under attack by the US-backed Israeli regime.
Before the Onslaught
The mood quickly shifted into one of preparation, as helmets, goggles, and facemasks were distributed. Drills, hammers, and staple guns could be heard as more barricades were erected and the encamped activists prepared for the inevitable police onslaught, or another attack by Zionist agitators, like the one that had occured the night before that left multiple students wounded. A member of the camp security team recalls how the attack was vicious, well-coordinated, anonymous, and unprovoked:
Around 10:00 pm during the encampment “quiet hours”, a group of men gathered outside the encampment wearing white masks covering their faces. They played the sound of a baby crying at a piercing volume, the same sound that the IOF has been playing in Gaza to bait Palestinians into an area thinking there is an infant in distress and then brutally murdering them. The mob began to antagonize the encampment while campus security stood idly by. Shortly thereafter, the mob began to rip apart the barricades around the encampment. At this point, campus security ran away and abandoned the UCLA students inside.
It raged for hours before police eventually came to break it up, and the pro-Israel demonstrators who attacked the camp wielded bear spray, large staves, and hurled fireworks and heavy objects into the camp which was full of unarmed protestors.
This attack came after days of escalating threats and acts of violence against the camp. According to the aforementioned security team member, “[the Zionist agitators] threatened to physically and sexually assault members of the camp inside and when they were walking around campus, they physically pushed and hit us, they left a bag of mice and dead rats next to the encampment, threw a bag of caterpillars toward us, left empty bags around us that required bomb sweeps by UCPD, and threatened to kill us. Many of these people were identified by organizers and reported to the university, yet the threats and violence continued without any action on behalf of UCLA.”
This is part of the reason why, the next evening, there was a great deal of care taken to make sure that students who did not want a showdown with cops were encouraged to leave. Organizational tiers were in place, each involving an assumed level of risk. The most vulnerable people, the physically disabled as well as international students those who did not want to risk being arrested by the cops for fear of deportation, were encouraged to leave in the first tier when the dispersal order came down. Among these were also the few non-students in the camp. These risked greater legal penalties as they were not subject the rumored amnesty guarantee for students.
The most vulnerable people, the physically disabled as well as international students those who did not want to risk being arrested by the cops for fear of deportation, were encouraged to leave in the first tier when the dispersal order came down.
Those who stayed were separated into further tiers consisting of those who would link arms in solidarity until dispersed by police and those who had pledged to stay and be arrested once the camp was swept. These last represented a diverse cross-section of the university.
I want to stress what a brave decision this was on their part. This inspiring collection of young souls had decided to risk certain legal consequences and potential physical harm simply to show their solidarity with an oppressed people halfway around the world. They deserve admiration for their courage.
Sweeping the Camp
As the daylight receded, hundreds of cops showed out in force prepared to shut down the peaceful encampment. The cops waited for hours because the encampment was surrounded by hundreds of sympathetic students and community members who were blocking the approaches, singing songs, and waving their phone lights in support of the activists. For hours they remained at the entrances to the makeshift camp, but as the evening wore on and the dispersal orders became more explicit, they slowly began to depart.
After most of the cameras and the supporters turned in for the night, the cops moved in on the camp. By this point, it was quite late, and I was headed home to sleep off my jet lag with a car full of equipment. I was safeguarding for protestors who decided to stay and get arrested. I kept in touch with the activists I had met, and received a play-by-play explanation of the camp sweep from the security team member I spoke with at length.
[The Police] began at the Tongva steps where an enormous crowd of Angelinos had gathered to protest the police sweep. Upon entering, members inside our encampment managed to kettle and push out the police non-violently and protect the space from their invasion. They then moved to other entry-points and attempted to divide us so we were in smaller numbers and were weaker targets.
We had no weapons and were not violent, simply peaceful protestors who think genocide and occupation is wrong. Eventually they moved in and threw people to the ground and beat them with batons. They shot 5 people in the head with rubber bullets. We held the line and chanted “We are students, please don’t shoot us.”
The cops screamed at us that we would never get jobs, we would go to jail, and we would be kicked out of school. One by one they pulled us from each other, throwing people to the ground, hitting them with batons, and ripped off our masks, helmets, and keffiyehs during the arrest.
The protestors put up a stout resistance, but were exhausted from the previous night’s battle with the outside agitators, and had been kept awake long into the night. When the cops moved, they came with the overwhelming force and violence that only a police force with a larger budget than several NATO members can muster.
The barricades fell, the arrests were made, the photos landed on the front page of the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, and what seemed like every other news outlet. Usually these focused on the events leading up to the sweep, the statements of faculty, and the context of the previous night’s attack. What most of them missed was the spirit of the camp, the character of the students, and the stirring support from the broader community.
Let No Man Despise Thy Youth
As we observe the unfolding of these student encampments, it is vital to not dismiss them as isolated incidents of youthful anger, but rather to recognize them as organized, integral manifestations of a global tapestry of activism that has emerged in solidarity with besieged Palestine.
The student movements of today are deeply rooted in a long history of protest on American campuses, a history that shifted the public tide from apathy and hostility to support for some of the most important human rights causes of the last century. These demonstrations are manifestations of a profound, global battle against entrenched systemic injustices. They demonstrate the ways in which today's young people, united by common values and connected in ways that previous generations can barely imagine, are leading an unprecedented movement towards a fairer, more livable world. The encampment at UCLA epitomizes this movement.
What I personally took away from my experience in the camp was a sense of immense hope. The whole affair was a truly inspiring experience and I am further convinced that the future of American organizing is youth-led. The young people have the conscience, they have the voice, and they have increasingly less to lose.
They need the encouragement and support of older generations who are willing to learn from them, and guide them when they ask for it. If anyone can bring us back from the brink of incipient fascism and the threat of ecological devastation, it is these bright souls. The best thing we can do is to support them, or get the hell out of their way.
Today's young people, united by common values and connected in ways that previous generations can barely imagine, are leading an unprecedented movement towards a fairer, more livable world. The encampment at UCLA epitomizes this movement.
A Tale of Two Camps
As it happens, before arriving at UCLA, I had spent the previous three weeks in a different kind of camp. Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp in Beirut, Lebanon. There I met with dozens of young Palestinians whose futures depend on everyone but themselves. Their opportunities, their ambitions, their very lives are circumscribed by the political whims of diplomats and policy makers half a world away. Their experience is one of suffering and deprivation, and yet rarely have I encountered a group of young people more filled with joy and promise.
Those young people now look with astonished gratitude at the courageous actions of the camp protestors in the US and elsewhere. They know that, on the other side of the world there is someone who sees them. Someone who feels their pain, who wants it to stop. Someone who is willing to face down an army of heavily armed and militarized police officers because they believe in a future for that child in that refugee camp they have never met.
They share a dream that one day that child can live in harmony and prosperity in a place without bombs, without drones, guns, and the midnight cries of grieving orphans. They share a dream that one day, no matter how unlikely, there can be peace between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, in a place called Palestine.
I could n’t agree more. Let us get the hell out of the way of this bright and brave youth and support them as best we can when they ask for it. Thank you for that last part. We tend to believe we know more and we know best. We simply don’t. They will succeed where my generation and the ones before me have failed. We have been at best performative.