UCSD students set up pro-Palestinian encampment in protest of war in Gaza

Pro-Palestinian students and supporters set up a tent city at UC San Diego on May 1 to protest Israel's actions in the war against Hamas in Gaza and to call for the university system's divestment from companies they say are favorable to Israel, joining a string of similar encampments on campuses nationwide.

About 20 tents were in place by 4 p.m., and during the early evening, hundreds of people gathered along Library Walk near Geisel Library and chanted "Free, free Palestine." Campus police stood at a distance watching.

The encampment was organized by UCSDivest with help from the Palestinian Youth Movement. Subrein Damanhoury, a representative of the latter group, said the protesters “intend to stay until their demands are met."

In an afternoon statement, UCSD said the action was "in violation of campus policy, which prohibits unauthorized encampments."

The university also said it "fully supports the right to peacefully protest and express views on campus. However, we are also fully committed to protecting the physical safety of all individuals in our community and upholding the rights of all students, faculty and staff to continue to work, study and carry out the academic mission of the university without undue disruption."

Damanhoury said there had been no communication between the protesters and the university other than the statement.

The encampment appeared almost two months after about 2,500 pro-Palestinian protesters marched across UCSD on March 6, demanding an end to the war and divestment from companies the demonstrators regard as hostile to Palestinians. It also came a day after about 1,000 students at San Diego State University held a walkout and rally for the same cause.

There was no indication that UC San Diego would ask the protesters to take down the tents. Nor were police positioning themselves to physically remove protesters from campus property, as police have this week at Cal Poly Humboldt and two universities in New York .

At UCLA on April 30, counterprotesters entered the campus and attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment . Police later dismantled the barricaded encampment and arrested many of the protesters after they defied orders to leave .

There had been no such clashes at UC San Diego as of early evening May 1. But with the campus's annual Sun God music festival slated for Saturday, May 4, the more pressing concern among some members of the student government was that the protest or the response to it could disrupt the event or lead the university to cancel it.

— La Jolla Light staff contributed to this report. ◆

This story originally appeared in La Jolla Light .