1 person arrested following ‘unauthorized’ pro-Palestinian protest at UCLA

One person was arrested after UCLA campus police ordered people participating in an “unsanctioned protest” to disperse Monday evening.

The pro-Palestinian protest was attended by about 40 people, UCLA police said, and took place on Dickson Court North, an area not “designated for public expression,” according to school policy.

The protest was organized by a student organization called Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine. It was a makeshift sukkah, a temporary structure associated with the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which is observed until Wednesday.

The student organization said it intended to welcome observers from all faiths who support their movement to visit the sukkah, which it hoped to hold for seven days.

“All who believe in justice and the liberation of Palestine are welcome to this interfaith observance of Sukkot,” the organization wrote in an Instagram post.

But those plans proved short-lived, as UCPD said the structure, as well as the use of “amplified sound,” violated the school’s controversial “Time, Place and Manner” policy, which sets rules about when and how to act. where students are allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights.

Banners reading “UCPD is fascist. Abolition Now” and “Divest from Genocide” were among the messages posted by protesters, according to the school’s student newspaper, the Daily bruin.

The student publication describes a scene in which dozens of police and campus security officers, some dressed in riot gear, surrounded the sukkah structure, along with shouting counter-protesters during the pro-Palestinian demonstration .

A video shared by the Daily Bruin shows a person being arrested by several police officers, although it is unclear whether that person is the same person who police say was arrested for failing to disperse.

Around 10 p.m., UCPD said the area had been cleared of activity. The sukkah was dismantled by police and UCLA surveillance staff about an hour earlier, according to UCLA Radiothe university’s student-run radio station.

The protest at UCLA also coincided with an appearance by controversial right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro. Shapiro, who is Jewish, is one of the most popular and outspoken pro-Israel political commentators.

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