UCPD sweeps Gaza solidarity sukkah in Dickson Court, one protester arrested

Demonstrators participate in the Gaza solidarity Sukkah in Dickson Court Monday. Jewish Voice for Peace at UCLA and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA erected the sukkah – a temporary structure used to celebrate the weeklong Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot – around 8:45 a.m. (Michael Gallagher/Assistant Photo editor)

By Dylan Winward
Oct. 23, 2024 12:02 a.m.
Editor’s note: This post was updated Oct. 23 at 7:06 p.m. to clarify Betar’s offer of legal aid.
Pro-Palestine organizations at UCLA set up a Gaza solidarity sukkah for nearly 12 hours Monday.
Jewish Voice for Peace at UCLA and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA erected the sukkah – a temporary structure used to celebrate the weeklong Jewish harvest holiday of Sukkot – around 8:45 a.m. in Dickson Court. Throughout the day, demonstrators outside Perloff Hall chanted, played music and held teach-ins before counter-protesters arrived, and UCPD swept the demonstration, arresting one person.
Benjamin Kersten, a member of JVP at UCLA, said the demonstrators hoped to use Sukkot to call for the UC to divest from companies associated with Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon.
“Many of us feel that we can’t celebrate Sukkot as normal this year, when we’re thinking about the millions of Palestinians who have been displaced in this ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli genocide, and thinking about the complicity of the university in that violence,” he said.
Kersten, a sixth-year art history doctoral student, said the university has previously used preserving Jewish safety as a pretext for restricting expression on campus. They added that using a Jewish holiday to create awareness surrounding Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip should prevent UCLA from using that excuse.
Throughout the day, demonstrators – many of whom wore masks and keffiyehs – chanted phrases including, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” “Free, free Palestine,” and, “Israel is a terrorist state.” Some members of JVP at UCLA also wore shirts that read, “not in our name.”
One speaker at the event, who did not give their name but claimed to be a Palestinian undergraduate student, said they believe the university must divest to be acting consistently with its values of equity and inclusion. They added that they believe the demonstration was part of a history of Jewish-led resistance to oppression.
“We stand here in solidarity,” they said in their speech. “We gather under this symbol of impermanence and fragility to honor those who have been made fragile, homeless and vulnerable for over 75 years. The people of Palestine in the history of the Zionist occupation and colonialism are not new.”
Around 12 p.m., a member of UCLA Student Affairs staff told demonstrators that their protest was in violation of the university’s updated Time, Place and Manner policies, which govern expression on campus. The student affairs staffer added that if the demonstrators failed to move, the issue would be delegated to the Office of Campus Safety.
[Related: UCLA announces new Time, Place and Manner policies, limits public expression areas]
UCLA Fire Marshal Ricardo Barboza then told the Daily Bruin around 1:45 p.m. that the structure erected in Dickson Court North violated section 105 of the Los Angeles City Fire Code. Barboza did not respond to requests for comment on whether another sukkah erected in Bruin Plaza by Chabad at UCLA was also in violation of the fire code.
However, students refused to take down the sukkah. Employees of the Contemporary Services Corporation – a private security company hired by UCLA – later ripped down a sign protesters had hung from Perloff Hall which read, “by soul, by blood,” and attempted to take down another sign put in its place, leading to pushing and shoving with protesters.
Pro-Palestine protesters then set up tents around 6:45 p.m. and held an open meeting to discuss the defensibility of their protest site going forward. One protester said at the meeting that their goal was to keep the protest going for seven days.
While the southeast corner of Dickson Court is an approved area for protests, Dickson Court North is outside of the “areas for public expression” that the university outlined Sept. 4. University TPM policies also prohibit people from erecting temporary structures on campus without permission or attempting to camp overnight.
Michael Chwe, a professor of political science who has previously expressed support for pro-Palestine protests, said the new policies do not solve any of the problems related to protesting on campus, adding that these issues were mainly caused by law enforcement and outside agitators.
“It’s very important that university is a place where everyone can speak freely and learn this freely, and we feel that the recent proposed new policy change really is very much against the values of what a university should be,” he said. “We really support any of our students when they decide to exercise their right for speech and protest.”
At 8:04 p.m., Betar – a self-described national Zionist organization – emailed a statement to the Daily Bruin calling for police to take action against the pro-Palestine protesters and criticizing UCLA’s approach to policing. They added in the statement that they were willing to pay legal fees for pro-Israel counter-protesters who “make it uncomfortable” for those inside the sukkah encampment.
“We demand police remove these thugs now and if not we will be forced to organize groups of Jews to do so,” they said in the statement. “We urge all Jews to go directly to this area and do not appease those who say stay away.”
UCLA Media Relations did not respond in time to requests for comment on an outside group’s call for mobilization to campus.
Minutes later, around 30 pro-Israel protesters arrived outside the sukkah, attempting to enter the temporary structure that had been set up. Many of the pro-Israel protesters also heckled sukkah participants, including by calling them “terrorists.”
At 8:22 p.m., around 50 UCPD officers wearing riot gear arrived in Dickson Court North, surrounding the sukkah encampment and instructing protesters to disperse. According to a post from UCPD on the social platform X, officers announced a dispersal order just after 8:30 p.m., after which most pro-Palestine protesters left the area.
In response, pro-Israel protesters cheered and shouted, “We love you, LAPD.” The Daily Bruin was unable to confirm the presence of any LAPD officers on campus Monday.
UCPD then arrested one individual for failing to obey its dispersal order and ordered the clearing of the sukkah and surrounding tents by UCLA facilities. Police officers and private security hired by the university closed off Dickson Court while the cleanup was happening.
“One person was arrested tonight for failure to disperse at Dickson Court North following a dispersal order for an unauthorized demonstration involving about 40 people,” UCPD said in a statement posted on X at 9:58 p.m. Monday. “The area is now clear.”
Contributing reports by Alexandra Crosnoe, Max Davis-Housefield, Michael Gallagher, Gabrielle Gillette, Nicolas Greamo, Felicia Keller, Zimo Li, Sam Mulick, Shiv Patel, Darlene Sanzon, Aidan Sun and Mia Tavares, Daily Bruin staff.