Rising tensions on US campuses boiled over on Wednesday when pro-Israel supporters attacked an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), hours after police arrested activists occupying a building at Columbia University and a razed tent city to the ground. on its campus.
Eyewitness videos from UCLA showed people hammering on wooden planks with sticks or poles and using them as makeshift barricades to protect pro-Palestinian protesters before police were called to campus.
On the other side of the country, dozens of New York police officers in helmets and armor arrested pro-Palestinian protesters occupying an academic building at Columbia University. Students who watched the extraordinary scene, many mocking police, fled to nearby buildings at the orders of officers, while police also cleared a nearby protest camp that had sparked similar protests on campuses across the country and abroad.
