UCLA to resume in-person classes after Gaza protest crackdown

In-person classes will resume Monday at the University of California, Los Angeles, college officials said, after they were moved online following clashes on campus between pro-Palestinian protesters and police.

Demonstrations against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza have rocked US campuses across the country for weeks, prompting crackdowns, mass arrests, and a White House directive to restore order.

UCLA said Friday it had moved classes online after a large police contingent forcibly cleared a sprawling encampment. Clashes have also broken out between the protesters and pro-Israel counter-demonstrators.

“The campus will return to regular operations (on Monday)… and plans to remain this way through the rest of the week,” read a statement posted Sunday on the university’s website.

“A law enforcement presence continues to be stationed around campus to help promote safety,” the post added.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said “urgent changes” were needed in the campus’ security operations, adding that a new office would lead the effort.

“It is clear that UCLA needs a unit and leader whose sole responsibility is campus safety to guide us through tense times,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

Rick Braziel, the former head of the Sacramento Police Department, was named to lead the office.

More than 2,000 arrests have been made in the past two weeks across the United States, some during violent confrontations with police, giving rise to accusations of use of excessive force.

President Joe Biden, who has faced pressure from all political sides over the conflict in Gaza, has said that “order must prevail” on US campuses.

The Gaza war started when Hamas militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,683 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

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