Irvine, CA – At least 20 police departments besieged the University of California, Irvine Gaza solidarity encampment on May 15, as student protesters marked the anniversary of the 1948 Nakba. Earlier that morning, protesters reclaimed UCI Physical Sciences Lecture Hall and renamed it in honor of Alex Odeh, a Palestinian American activist who was assassinated in Santa Ana, California in 1985 by three members of the Jewish Defense League.

Shortly after students draped banners on Alex Odeh Hall, 20 Orange County police departments swarmed the campus parking lots as UCI administration put out a call for “mutual aid.” Departments included UCI PD, Irvine PD, Santa Ana PD, Yorba Linda PD, Garden Grove PD, Huntington Beach PD, Newport Beach PD, Tustin PD, La Palma PD, Fountain Valley PD, Newport PD, Rancho Santa Margarita PD, Costa Mesa PD, Orange PD, Buena Park PD, Placentia PD, Brea PD, Laguna PD, California Highway Patrol and OC Sheriff's Department.

Police blocked surrounding streets and parking lots with their vehicles, citing parked cars en masse. Helicopters and drones hovered overhead. Officers formed huge lines and started kettling protesters, snatching up and arresting students and faculty as they advanced on the encampment. But even as officers marched forward, protesters never stopped chanting, never stopped making their demands, including for UCI to financially divest from Israel. With every police advance, protesters erected barriers using tents, chairs and signs, chanting “OCPD, KKK, IOF: they’re all the same!”

Police eventually forced protesters towards Aldrich Park, dismantling the Gaza Solidarity Encampment as they passed. At least one student was brutally arrested, with multiple officers pinning them to the concrete, one officer with his knee directly on their neck. According to UCI Divest, at least 50 people were arrested over the course of the day. Around 8 p.m., officers issued a dispersal order and threatened to use “less-lethal” force on those remaining in the park, including rubber bullets.

The heavy police response this Wednesday is consistent with UCI’s Chancellor Howard Gillman’s approach to the student movement. On the first day of the encampment, he summoned six police departments, denying students access to food, water and public bathrooms before public pressure forced him to retreat. But on May 8, administration suspended several students, including three from the encampment negotiating team. On May 14, during a UC board of regents meeting, UCI disclosed it had $32 billion in assets tied to Israel. At that same meeting, a spokesperson showed no interest in divestment whatsoever.

Student activists were defiant, promising that protests will continue until UCI severs all its financial ties to Israel. Their chants echoed across the nighttime park, “From the river to the sea! Palestine will be free!”

#IrvineCA #CA #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #StudentMovement #SDS #InJusticeSystem #PoliceBrutality #PoliticalRepression #Feature

Irvine, CA – “We demand amnesty for student protesters!” said a Palestinian student organizer at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Gaza solidarity encampment. “We’ve made it clear that we are not leaving until all of our demands are met. If anything, the student suspensions have only made us more determined to stay and hold our ground, because this fight is bigger than us. It’s a fight against genocide and our tuition money going towards the weapons that are murdering Palestinians by the Israeli government!”

She was one of many voices rallying the community to defend the encampment from campus administration, who suspended numerous students, including three members of the encampment’s negotiating team on Wednesday, May 8. She explained that negotiations are on hold, since the administration suspended members of the negotiation team and is not negotiating in good faith.

Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) member Daniel Jimenez spoke about the bravery of the student activists, “The students within the encampment give me lots of hope and encouragement. Their spirits remained high even after the news of the shameful suspension of some of their peers by UCI, which sparked more passion and fire to their flame. I am proud of them – they are risking possibly their whole life and career simply for standing against genocide. May they remain strong and keep on regardless of the consequences!”

Dr. Haifaa Younis, an obstetrician and gynecologist returning from seven months of medical practice in Palestine, was invited to speak on the horrific conditions Palestinians face due to Israeli attacks and starvation tactics. The contrast between medical practice in the West and in occupied Palestine was sharp, as she described how physicians lacked basic tools like monitors, blood pressure cuffs, or even gloves, which had to be used repeatedly while operating on several patients. “You really have to be extremely creative to save lives there,” said Younis.

Younis spoke of a woman in her seventies who came in, “then there comes in three girls whose house was just bombed. There were four; one girl was dead. So, you have enough to handle one patient. They looked at me and said, if the old woman dies, she’s 75. She’s lived her life. We can save only one.” Ultimately, one of the girl’s arms was amputated and the other’s leg was saved.

Younis also spoke of the incredible resilience of the Palestinian people.

Emma Gottfried of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) said, “It was powerful hearing Dr. Younis speak about the strength and spirit of the Palestinian people, who are undergoing intense and extreme hardship due to the IOF's genocidal attacks. How families who lost everything are still surviving in the face of such conditions.”

A central theme of Younis’s speech was on international solidarity. Describing the work of students in the U.S., Younis said, “You have lit a fire which is spreading across the whole world,” and that “fighting for others is what makes us fully human.”

Tarps were rolled out as the sound of prayer filled the nighttime campus. A student organizer reaffirmed her commitment to the cause, stating, “We’re here because there’s not only been a genocide but also 76 years of occupation. An occupation that has murdered over 35,000 people, and that’s not even counting the people under the rubble or who haven’t been found, or whose bodies are completely gone! The students are going to stay here. The students are going to fight. And even if everyone quit, I would be the last person standing here because I’m Palestinian, and I’m also a human being.”

#IrvineCA #CA #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #StudentMovement #FRSO #CSOOC

Irvine, CA – On Monday, April 29, a gathering of about 70 students and faculty swelled to over 200 people to demand that the University of California, Irvine (UCI) divest completely from Israel.

“The community is what keeps UCI running. Without our labor, without our tuition, the university is nothing. So, they are going to bend to our demands! They are going to end their complicity in the genocide in Palestine because we keep this university running, and we are going to take back our university,” a student organizer declared.

Earlier that day, dozens of officers from several departments descended on the campus to repress the Palestine Solidarity Encampment. These departments included Irvine PD, Costa Mesa PD, and Newport PD. 30 officers came from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department alone, decked out in riot gear and face shields.

John Nonato of Anakbayan UCI said of the police, “Throughout the whole encampment today, police have been threatening arrest of the students, just for going to the bathroom. They’ve been preventing supplies, food and water from getting in. They were saying they would arrest people for bringing in the food and supplies. We stood our ground!”

Police erected barricades around the encampment and denied students entry or exit. Officers in riot gear were seen training in parking lots, and jail buses were brought on campus. However, the massive community turnout reinforced the encampment and forced the university to back down on its hardline approach.

Rain Mendoza of Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) said, “UCI has a history of severe police repression. I was a student in 2020 when a wildcat strike for a cost-of-living adjustment took place, and I protested alongside my fellow student faculty. I remember how UCIPD locked down the campus and brutally arrested Shikera Chamndany, an African-American alumni who was not even part of the rally. So, I am proud of the student encampment, their resistance and their solidarity with Gaza. Long live Palestine!”

Prayer echoed across the campus as inside the encampment, tarps were spread out on pavement for worship. Lawyers held workshops to educate protesters on their First Amendment rights. Children wove around tents and police barricades, chasing each other around the encampment while police waited in their cruisers.

Diana Terreros of Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “Students across the country are protesting to end a genocide, and the response of the universities has been to repress these protests with police violence, at times with same police that trains with the IDF [the Israeli military] themselves. These brave students are now risking arrest and academic disciplinary action, such as expulsion. But they are not backing down because they know it's right to stand against genocide and stand for a free Palestine!”

Encampment demands include that the university divest funds from companies that are complicit in the Israeli occupation and genocide, sever its ties with the U.S. military, and revoke all disciplinary action against students. They also include reinvestment in student programs such as housing security, childcare, and ethnic studies.

Nonato spoke on the achievements of the encampment, saying, “Today we were able to meet with administration and get our demands on the table. The biggest accomplishment today was getting this turnout and bringing the community together, showing how powerful the movement is, and that students and workers and faculty are all working together to condemn this genocide. They’re not backing down on their demands!”

#IrvineCA #CA #StudentMovement #SDS #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #Occupy4Gaza #FRSO