Pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupy a part of Stanford University’s White Plaza in Stanford, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The demonstrators have been occupying the area since last Thursday urging the university to divest from Israel and demanding a permanent cease-fire in the war in Gaza.
A view of the pro-Palestinian encampment at Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The camp has grown over the past week. UCLA administrators in Southern California had thought they balanced First Amendment rights with safety on campus, but that quickly changed Wednesday night when a bloody melee with fistfights and chemical sprays broke out, lasting for hours before police intervened. At the University of Southern California, 93 people — including 51 students — were arrested last week following reports of vandalism.
Police advance on pro-Palestinian demonstrators in an encampment on the UCLA campus Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Los Angeles. “We can’t physically pick him up and boot him out, so we’re just going to leave him,” Williams said. “The main target here is the administration, because they’re the ones that have the endowment, that have access to the investment holdings. We don’t want to be deterred by these individual actors who are trying to agitate us on purpose.”