USC closes campus after pro-Palestinian protesters, police clash

Police in riot gear arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of Southern California after ordering the large crowd to disperse. Authorities also created a skirmish line as dozens of other protesters refused to leave on Wednesday night.

Some people cooperated and began walking off campus, however, over 100 people remained, including a group gathered in a circle and standing with their arms linked. Officers began surrounding the circle and the nearby crowds began chanting, “We only wanted peace!” and “Hands off students!”

By 6 p.m., several protestors in the circle had been arrested. Soon after, others voluntarily surrendered. By 9:30 p.m., police confirmed around 35 protestors were arrested for trespassing. Several dozen more are still being processed, LAPD said.

The protestors remained mostly peaceful throughout the demonstration outside of several isolated incidents, one in which a bottle of water was thrown toward the police line.

Earlier in the day, a scuffle erupted between law enforcement and pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of Southern California Wednesday, prompting school officials to close the campus to all but students.

The protesters, including students and off-campus participants, erected banners and pitched tents in Alumni Park early in the morning, a scene similar to demonstrations occurring on many other college campuses in the U.S.

While the protest began with only a handful of attendees early Wednesday morning, a confrontation erupted when public safety officers moved in to remove the tents, which are not allowed on the private university’s campus.

The protesters, who were objecting to the ongoing war in Gaza and Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, claimed officers were “RAIDING ENCAMPMENTS” and “VIOLENTLY ARRESTING” them, according to an activist’s account.

Video shared to social media by Los Angeles Times reporter Angie Orellana Hernandez showed at least one officer brandishing a baton after “officers put their hands on a @USC student.” She later shared another video showing students surrounding a police vehicle so it could not leave the area with a student that the protesters believed was wrongly detained.

School officials ultimately closed campus by about 1:45 p.m., allowing only students to enter, as reported by NewsNation’s Nancy Loo.

A dispersal order was issued and Los Angeles police officers arrived on campus around 4 p.m. Officers dressed in riot gear began dispersing the gathered crowds. Authorities confirmed that no officers or protestors were injured during the demonstration and that, ultimately, 93 people were arrested during the late afternoon and evening protest.

The heightened tensions come several days after USC canceled valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s speech, citing unspecified safety concerns related to her social media activity in support of the Palestinian cause.

Shortly after the campus clash, Andrew T. Guzman, USC’s provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, issued a statement saying the university “values freedom of expression” but added that it also has the “highest priority and responsibility is to protect the safety of our community and ensure our academic programs and university activities continue unabated.”

“[The protesters’] actions have escalated to the point of confrontation and have threatened the safety of our officers and campus community,” Guzman said.

In response, the school reverted to its protocols for nights and weekends, when “individuals with proper USC identification or verifiable business purpose” can enter campus, but others cannot.

“We want to be clear that we reject speech that is hateful and that causes harm to others,” Guzman wrote. “In these challenging times, we call on the Trojan Family to remember that every member of our community is deserving of respect, has the right to be safe on campus, take classes, and participate in other campus activities without fear of harassment or bullying. It should be everyone’s priority to treat each other with kindness and care.”

Guzman’s words came after an emotional morning and early afternoon on campus.

“There’s more than 33,000 people dead, there’s children, there’s family, there’s parents,” a USC student named Angel told KTLA’s Lauren Lyster. ” I think both sides … we need to acknowledge that we need to put an end to this because there’s just been way too much damage.”

On Tuesday, Al Jazeera cited the Gaza Ministry of Health’s numbers indicating that “at least 34,183 people have been killed and 77,084 have been wounded” in Israel’s war against Hamas, not delineating between combatants and noncombatants.

Some USC students said they felt intimidated by the protesters, including Coby Russo, a Jewish Israeli.

“They’re yelling, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ which was federally deemed as antisemitic hate speech,” Russo told KTLA 5 News. “I don’t even know how they’re allowed to be doing this.”

The Anti-Defamation League says the phrase is antisemitic and “is fundamentally a call for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, territory that includes the State of Israel, which would mean the dismantling of the Jewish state,” and it’s “long been used by anti-Israel voices, including supporters of terrorist organizations such as Hamas.”

The U.S. House of Representatives agreed, passing a bipartisan resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic earlier this month.

Students at a growing number of U.S. colleges are gathering in protest encampments with a unified demand of their schools: Stop doing business with Israel – or any companies that support its ongoing war in Gaza.

The demand has its roots in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a decades-old campaign against Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. The movement has taken on new strength as the Israel-Hamas war surpasses the six-month mark and stories of suffering in Gaza have sparked international calls for a cease-fire.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Footage of the protest dispersal can be seen in the video player above.