Local and state law enforcement began clearing the pro-Palestine encampment at UC San Diego on Monday morning, arresting dozens of protesters.
The action began shortly before 6 a.m. and involved over 100 campus police, California Highway Patrol officers and the San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies.
Local television coverage showed officers taking down tents and clearing the area of protesters, putting many under arrest.
The UC San Diego Police later reported 64 arrests. Of those, 40 were students and 24 were unaffiliated or their status was unknown.
The university said the arrested students would be placed under immediate interim suspension.
On Sunday night, Chancellor Pradeep Khosla released a statement calling the protest an “illegal encampment,” and saying that the tents set up on Library Walk pose “an unacceptable safety and security hazard on campus.”
“The violation of law and campus policy represented by this encampment, however, is not a peaceful protest. It has become dangerous,” he said.
Students organized the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on campus last week as part of a nationwide student movement to show support for Palestinians amid a spiking death toll in Israel’s war against Hamas.
Morgen Chalmiers, a UCSD student and one of the protest organizers, described the arrests as a violent action against peaceful students.
“Today, we saw UCSD administration willfully endanger communities of color, undocumented individuals, and other marginalized groups, whom we know are at a disproportionate risk of state violence,” Chalmiers said. “Today we also witness the invasion of Rafah by the Israeli Occupation Forces, who train San Diego police, and we recognize the ties between militarism, police violence, and repression on our campus and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
The protesters are demanding that the university “permanently sever all institutional ties to Israel and other entities that render our university complicit in the Gaza genocide, including research partnerships with the Israel Defense Ministry, U.S. Department of Defense, and private defense contractors.”
Classes at the University were moved to remote on Monday, and all events on the West Campus were canceled. All facilities were closed.
Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-San Diego, posted on X, formerly Twitter, about her concerns with the Monday morning action.
“I’m deeply concerned that the response to peaceful protests at UCSD is to call in riot police,” she said. “A militarized response further escalates the situation and doesn’t help keep students safe.”
The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System said on social media Monday morning that due to police activity the UC San Diego Central Campus Trolley Station is temporarily closed, with trains bypassing the station.
Encampments on colleges campuses across the U.S. are in the process of being cleared as graduations near.
Updated at 5:51 p.m., Monday, May 6, 2024
City News Service contributed to this article.