Following violent police raid of the Gaza solidarity campsite on campus last week and attacks by counterprotesters on pro-Palestinian student protestors, over 800 professors and staff members of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have asked for the chancellor’s resignation.
A letter supporting their students’ pro-Palestinian activism was delivered by over a hundred professors and other teaching staff members on Thursday.
The letter demanded that Gene Block resign as chancellor immediately and that the academic senate vote against him. The letter demanded that any accusations against the academics, staff, and students who took part in the camping be dropped by the authorities.
Mass faculty protests at one of the nation’s most prestigious public universities coincide with pro-Palestinian encampment demonstrations and harsh law enforcement crackdowns during graduation season that have rocked campuses around the nation.
Professors from various departments recounted the brutal violence committed by counter-demonstrators on April 30 while holding signs that read, “Take a walk, Block,” “UCLA faculty and staff… stand with our students,” and “Disclose & Divest.”
The police failed to intervene, and the pro-Palestinian demonstrators were subsequently arrested in large numbers.
Dan Froot, a UCLA world arts and cultures and dance professor who is a senatorial representative from his department, said, “We are outraged at the university’s failure to protect its students from vigilante and police violence and its refusal to uphold its stated values as made evident in the forcible removal and arrest of peacefully protesting students, faculty, and staff.”
Reporters were informed by a group of volunteer medics who assisted in treating protesters hurt by police and counter-demonstrators that they had handled a variety of injuries, such as severe head wounds, facial fractures, subarachnoid hemorrhages, rubber-bullet wounds, broken bones, and chemical irritant-induced asthma attacks.
A statement from her department’s faculty was read by history professor Katherine Marino, who reported that police were “dragging visibly injured students away” and that at least 25 students had been hospitalized out of about 200 protestors arrested.
The letter also showed support for the demands made by the students, urging UCLA to “divest from military-weapons-production companies and supporting systems” and to release a report detailing all investments within 30 days.
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Professor of anthropology Susan Slyomovics presented a statement on behalf of seventy-five Jewish faculty members and staff members, accusing Block of having “misused Jews” by implying that the encampment needed to be taken down in order to stop antisemitism: “We maintain that criticism of Israel is not automatically antisemitic and that Jews who are in favor of Palestine’s liberation should not be diminished.”
A request for comment on Thursday was not immediately answered by UCLA or the Los Angeles Police Department. Block had earlier this week announced the establishment of a campus safety office to “identify the perpetrators of the violence and hold them to account.” The office would be led by a former Sacramento police chief.
Professor of anthropology at UCLA Purnima Mankekar said she felt obligated to stand up for the students at the encampment. She claimed that the students had taken enormous efforts to diffuse the violent attacks from the opposing demonstrators.
“My job is to make sure the learning and intellectual growth of our students goes unimpeded … When that gets disrupted by violence that is perpetrated on them by outside instigators or by the police, that makes me very upset,” She stated.
She went on, saying that “the university is not a university, it’s a police state” if students are not allowed to protest peacefully. “Our students’ parents entrust us with them. It is our duty to ensure their safety.
According to Gary Segura, a professor of public policy, political science, and Chicano/a studies and a former dean, it was noteworthy that so many faculty members had signed the letter.
