25 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at the University of California, Los Angeles have been ordered to stay away from campus

A pro-Palestinian protest at the University of California, Los Angeles on Monday evening ended with dozens of people arrested and demonstrators who were ordered not to return to campus for at least two weeks, officials said.

The confrontation occurred after protesters walked on campus earlier in the day reciting the names of some of the people who died in Gaza, the latest of several protests to take place on campus in recent weeks.

As seen in aerial photos from local television stations, demonstrators turned the waters of the Shapiro Fountain red. For several hours, the demonstration was mostly peaceful. However, the situation later turned chaotic as Los Angeles police and private security guards formed a skirmish line and fought protesters who stood behind barricades.

A crowd formed on the opposite side of the skirmish line, with protesters chanting, “Let them go!”

Associate Professor Graeme Blair, a member of the Faculty of Justice in Palestine, said one student was taken to hospital for treatment of wounds from a rubber bullet, which he believed was fired while students were in a camp near Dodd Hall. He criticized authorities, saying students had been following dispersal orders throughout the evening.

UCLA police said in a statement late Monday that about 25 protesters had been arrested on suspicion of willfully disrupting university activities. Police said protesters would be summonsed and given a 14-day order to stay away from the UCLA property and then released.

The statement said the group tampered with firefighting equipment, removed wires from electrical equipment and caused other damage on campus.

Police ordered protesters to disperse at least twice, and the crowd quickly dismantled tents and barricades and moved to other locations on campus.

As protesters marched, one of them read aloud the names of dead Palestinians.

“They will not die in vain,” protesters chanted after each name. “They will be redeemed.”

Some protesters placed roses next to a coffin painted with a Palestinian flag, which stood next to a fake bloody corpse. A helicopter hovered overhead.

Many protesters declined to be interviewed, saying they were not “media liaisons” or “media trained.”

The event was organized by Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Several faculty members followed the crowd with a banner expressing support for the students and the demonstrations.

Monday’s event was the third pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA in recent weeks, whose handling has sparked outrage and questions about how ill-prepared the university was for such an event.

The first one was organized on April 25 and caused mixed reactions, followed by a largely peaceful counter-protest on April 28.

However, two days later, the University of California, Los Angeles declared the camp unlawful and ordered campus members to leave the camp or face punishment.

Later that night, a violent mob attacked the camp. The few police officers on duty were quickly overwhelmed, and the violence continued for three hours until the authorities finally brought the situation under control.

During Monday’s demonstration, most protesters wore surgical masks, and those on the outskirts of the mobile camp held makeshift wooden shields or set up wire mesh to barricade themselves. The crowd moved from the courtyard in front of Royce Hall, down the Tongva steps, to the patio behind Kerckhoff Hall, to the courtyard in front of Dodd Hall.

As evening fell, protesters set up barricades in the Dodd Hall courtyard. The confrontation escalated after the declaration of an illegal assembly. Police and guards formed a line and protesters shouted, “Police off campus!”

UCLA professor Yogita Goyal, who teaches English and African American studies, was among the campus faculty on Monday expressing support for the protesters. Goyal said the police should not have declared an unlawful assembly on Monday or April 30, when students were protesting peacefully.

“UCLA leadership should be here and allow our students to express their political views,” she said.