Pro-Palestine Protesters Sue UCLA After ‘Brutal Attack’ on Gaza Solidarity Encampment in 2024
Los Angeles (Quds News Network)- Over 30 pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have filed a lawsuit against campus officials and several law enforcement agencies, following an attack by pro-Israel supporters on members of the Palestine solidarity encampment during the height of the U.S. campus protests in 2024.
A lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles superior court outlines the violence and significant injuries that UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment members experienced at the hands of police and counterprotesters from April to June of 2024.
The complaint was filed on behalf of 35 pro-Palestinian activists, including students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and sympathizers.
The complaint accuses UCLA of negligence during counter protesters’ “brutal mob assault” against the encampment on 30 April as officials failed to intervene. The Washington Post and New York Times documented how law enforcement allowed hours of unchecked violence against pro-Palestinian demonstrators who, along with college activists across the US, had set up Gaza solidarity camps.
Pro-Israel counter protesters assault the students camping for Palestine at the University of California (UCLA). pic.twitter.com/3Z7PlTylC1
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 1, 2024
No counter protesters were arrested that night even though officers witnessed the attacks, which were “broadcast live to millions”, the suit says: “Mob members violently assaulted protesters … breaking their bones, sexually assaulting them, burning their eyes with chemical munitions, punching them, hitting them with metal rods, poles, and boards, and hurling incendiary devices into the peaceful encampment.”
“This was four-plus hours of unmitigated violence while UCLA private security stood sometimes feet away and did nothing to protect the faculty, students and community members protesting genocide,” said Thomas Harvey, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
On 1 May, the following day, UCLA asked the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) and California highway patrol (CHP) to “forcibly remove people expressing pro-Palestinian views”, with officers hurling flashbangs, shooting projectiles at people’s faces, beating and body-slamming protesters and arresting more than 200 of them, the suit says; protesters were still seeking medical attention from counter-protesters’ attacks when police raided.
Aftermath of a police attack, accompanied by pro-Israeli counter-protesters, on the Gaza encampment at UCLA, resulting in hundreds of protesters reportedly wounded and arrested. pic.twitter.com/yN2WqxUjtu
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 2, 2024
The suit adds “systemic anti-Palestinian bias” at UCLA. One is an unnamed Palestinian student who on 30 April was threatened with rape by counterprotesters and sprayed with chemical munitions, reminding her of scenes from her upbringing of “illegal Zionist settlers storming the homes of Palestinians while the Israeli military stood by and watched or even facilitated”, says the suit.
Binyamin Moryosef, a Jewish, Israeli-American undergraduate plaintiff, says he was “violently grabbed” and zip-tied by police during a 10 June gathering even though officers hadn’t ordered dispersal. Another Palestinian-American student also says he faced excessive force and suffered long-term shoulder injuries when he was detained that day.
Moryosef, a fourth-year English major, criticized the university for the “silencing of Jewish voices that criticize Israel by erasing them from discussion” at a press briefing on Thursday, saying: “I’ve been struggling to finish my final years here due to the stress and uncertainty surrounding whether I’ll be further punished for practicing my first amendment rights.”
Afnan Khawaja, a student plaintiff who recently graduated, said UCLA “abandoned us to the chaos” during the attacks by counterprotesters, telling reporters: “Then they expected us to return to classrooms, as if trauma could be erased with coursework and syllabus … What is freedom of speech if students cannot speak their mind?”
The defendants include the UC regents, several UCLA administrators, LAPD, CHP and more than a dozen people lawyers have identified as counterprotesters.
The complaint was filed amid the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists and colleges, including investigations into 60 universities for alleged “antisemitic discrimination”.
The Trump administration also canceled $400m in grants to Columbia University, saying it failed to stop antisemitism, despite the institution suspending pro-Palestinian student groups and facilitating arrests.
Immigration authorities recently detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist at Columbia, even though he is a lawful permanent resident not accused of a crime, over his pro-Palestine activism and is seeking to deport him.
Harvey said he hoped the lawsuit would pressure UCLA to “show some courage and defend against what undoubtedly will be real pressure from the Trump administration to demonize their students, who they know very well are not antisemitic, violent or a threat to anyone”.
Harvey said the suit aimed to expose the truth of what happened on campus, protect free expression at UCLA and secure compensation for plaintiffs and punitive damages: “Everyone should be extremely concerned that at one of the major universities in the world, people were allowed to come on campus and beat and maim and yell racial epithets at people for hours with no effort by anyone at UCLA to stop it … That’s under a Democratic president and Democratic mayor at what many people would think is a liberal university.”
