Two separate groups protested on campus Wednesday, coinciding with a UC Board of Regents meeting at UCLA.
Around 40 pro-Palestine protesters, many wearing keffiyehs and masks, gathered outside a UC Board of Regents meeting at the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center to call for divestment from companies associated with the Israeli military. The protest was the second consecutive day pro-Palestine groups have protested outside the meetings.
About 50 UCLA Faculty Association members and students also protested against federal and state funding cuts to higher education and called attention to freedom of speech issues outside Murphy Hall at noon.
[Related: UC implements systemwide hiring freeze following federal, state threats to budget]
UC Divest at UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCLA and United Auto Workers Local 4811’s rank and file caucus led the protest outside the Luskin Conference Center.
According to the Associated Press, Israel launched a new wave of air strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, killing more than 400 Palestinians and ending a ceasefire which had been in place since January. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he launched the strike because of a lack of progress in talks to extend the ceasefire, according to AP.
Protesters gathered outside the Luskin Conference Center at 10:30 a.m., chanting slogans such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” and “We will honor all our martyrs.”
Around 11 a.m. about 20 of the protesters climbed up the Engineering IV building’s stairs facing Gateway Plaza. They suspended banners from the second floor that read “The more you silence us, the louder we will be,” “Don’t look away, keep your eyes on Palestine” and “UCPD, KKK, IOF, you’re all the same.”
Protesters also blocked a Daily Bruin reporter – and other members of the press – from entering the second floor of the building.
Shortly afterwards, around 10 UCPD officers wearing riot gear began walking toward pro-Palestine protesters outside of the Engineering IV building. Another group of around 30 UCPD officers, some holding less-than-lethal weapons and batons, also walked down the stairs of the Engineering IV building, moving protesters out of the area.
Protesters shouted “disclose, divest” at the police before heading back to the front of the Luskin Conference Center around noon.
[Related: Protesters rally on day 1 of UC Regents meetings to denounce Israeli airstrikes]
The UCLA Faculty Association – a group advocating for employment and academic freedom issues – also demonstrated Wednesday, gathering outside Murphy Hall around noon in conjunction with all 10 UC Faculty Associations who protested simultaneously on their respective campuses.
At the rally, association members called for the release of former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained and arrested March 8 due to his participation in pro-Palestine protests. The faculty members also called for the protection of all students and faculty regardless of immigration status.
[Related: Pro-Palestine groups protest detainment of Columbia demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil]
The rally included nine speeches from UCLA professors and former faculty.
Anna Markowitz, president of the association and an associate professor of education at UCLA, said she believes that UCLA faculty who attended the rally are acting to protect academia. The rally aimed to call attention to attempts from the federal government to control the actions of other universities like Columbia by threatening to withhold funding, she added.
“We are here to tell the UC administration not to bend the knee,” Markowitz said. “We are a state with a lot of money, with a lot of resources, with a lot of passionate folks. We can choose to be the model.”
Nicolas Ortega, a third-year education and social transformation student who attended the rally, said he appreciated seeing professors standing in solidarity with students, especially regarding pro-Palestine protests. He added that the protest gave him more information about how important research funding is.
Katherine King, a retired professor emerita of comparative literature and classics, also called in her speech for the disarmament of campus police, saying that their weapons obstruct students’ freedom of speech. She added that she stands in solidarity with student protesters and expects the UC administration to do so as well.
“We need our administration to make a positive statement about this, that they will resist, that they will support their students, that they will pay legal expenses if necessary when the students are arrested,” King said in her speech.
In her speech, Markowitz said she also believes it is important for the university to preserve free expression.
“The university has long been and must continue to be, a place where individuals have the freedom to speak, think about, write about whatever they want, to explore ideas, a place where science for the public good is conducted with public support and used for the better,” she said.
Siobhan Braybrook, an associate professor of science at UCLA, said higher education is valuable, despite its lack of profit in a short time scale, adding that education and research funding has wide-reaching societal ramifications.
She added that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget – which would cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the UC – will make it difficult for the University to pay its employees fair wages.
[Related: UC faces over $270M in proposed budget cuts, threatening personnel and programs]
Noah Zatz, a professor of law and labor studies at UCLA, read an open letter on behalf of UCLA Jewish Faculty and Staff titled “Not in Our Name.” The letter had received 66 signatures as of 11:25 a.m.
Zatz said the faculty who signed the letter expressed unequivocal opposition to the arrest and detention of Khalil, and Columbia University’s subsequent expulsion of several Palestinian protesters in response to Trump administration demands.
“We are vehemently opposed to efforts by the federal government to arrest, deport or pressure universities to discipline students, staff and faculty of UCLA, and people who are deemed completely unacceptable by virtue of their support of freedom for the Palestinian people,” he said. “Any attempts to invoke our name to harass, expel, arrest or deport members of our campus communities do not protect Jewish people, but instead are a direct attack on democracy and freedom of speech.”
Zatz added that he believes it is important to recognize UCLA’s “complicity” in obstructing freedom of speech and that its actions defend the Trump administration.
[Related: Trump outlines plans to punish students, campuses involved in ‘illegal’ protests]
Chris Tilly, a UCLA professor of urban planning currently on sabbatical, said his speech was inspired by the 2018 UCLA college commencement speech of Noor Abdalla, Khalil’s wife.
“Education only has the power to change the world if we have freedom of speech and academic freedom,” he said. “If those with power, wealth and privilege, can dictate what gets taught, they will ensure that what gets taught supports their power, wealth and privilege.”
Tilly also said he believes that if academics do not stand up for pro-Palestine speech, it may mean other types of speech will be suppressed at a later point.
Markowitz ended the rally by asking UC faculty to defy the Trump administration – even though the UC administration might not.
“I know that we have power,” she said. “We are faculty at one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. We not only have power, we have a responsibility.”
