This post was updated April 28 at 11:41 p.m.

For the Daily Bruin’s full coverage of the UC Divest Coalition and Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA encampment, see here.

Counter-protesters at the ongoing pro-Palestine encampment played loud music, attempted to climb over the barricades surrounding the encampment and harassed its participants throughout the third night of the demonstration. 

The counter-protesters arrived in Dickson Plaza around 11 p.m. Saturday equipped with speakers and megaphones. In front of Royce Hall, the group – which included around 30 people at its peak, some of whom said they were from Beverly Hills – also danced and set up candles spelling out “Bring them home,” in reference to Israeli hostages still held by Palestinian political party and militant group Hamas. 

Pro-Palestine protesters expanded the encampment to stretch from the top of Janss Steps to the walkway separating Royce Hall and Haines Hall by 2:40 a.m. Adam Tfayli, the Undergraduate Students Association Council international student representative, alleged that he and others around him were threatened with a knife around 1 a.m. 

“I went and I told one of the CSC (UCLA’s private security) officers. He really didn’t do anything. They didn’t care,” Tfayli said. “I think it just speaks to UCLA and how UCLA’s responding, and how it’s not protecting its students.” 

Throughout the night, multiple counter-protesters attempted to climb over the barriers of the encampment or push through participants blocking the entrances. 

Around 2:10 a.m., a participant of the encampment grabbed one of the counter-protesters’ large speakers and threw it inside the metal barriers.

The counter-protesters also attempted to engage with Daily Bruin reporters at the scene by yelling at them and calling one a sexist slur through megaphones, as well as following and recording them. 

“Don’t be an idiot. No recording,” one counter-protester said to a reporter. 

According to an Instagram post from the Israeli American Council’s Los Angeles branch, counter-protesters will be present in Dickson Plaza from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA also called for mobilization at the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center to begin at 10 a.m. Sunday.

A GoFundMe to support the counter-protest has raised $66,266 as of 10:49 a.m. Sunday. A previous description of the fund claimed to be using the money for a screen and speakers to display videos of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

Around 5 a.m., fewer than 10 counter-protesters remained in Dickson Plaza as they shouted through megaphones, “Wake up, everybody.”

UCPD officers who arrived at the scene and other facilities staff began moving additional metal barriers toward the side of the encampment facing the Dickson Plaza flagpole to create a separate blocked-off area at around 5:50 a.m.