This post was updated Jan. 22 at 12:50 p.m.

The UC Divest Coalition at UCLA held two demonstrations Tuesday to demand the University divest from companies associated with the Israeli military and condemn United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

About 50 demonstrators marched outside Murphy Hall at around 2 p.m. to call on the UC Board of Regents to divest from companies including Blackstone, Blackrock and “all other companies and institutions complicit in war, occupation, apartheid, and genocide,” according to UCLA Divest’s Instagram. The regents met Tuesday and Wednesday at the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center.

Protesters chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Whose university? Our university” outside Murphy Hall. They also listened to speeches from members of Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA and Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCLA.

A drone circled protesters during the afternoon demonstration.

Steve Lurie, the associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety, said the device belongs to UC Davis’ police department. UCLA requests support from other campuses when hosting UC Board of Regents meetings, he added.

“When this demonstration was scheduled, we used it to get a better view of what was going on,” he said.

One speaker said ICE agents have been “kidnapping” people across Los Angeles. ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have arrested more than 10,000 people in LA since ramping up immigration enforcement operations in the city in June, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“We’re seeing how they’re tearing families apart locally and in our homelands, in Palestine, constantly breaking up our families, destroying bloodlines,” the speaker said in their speech.

ICE did not respond in time to a request for comment on if it has made warrantless arrests in LA.

Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip – which has killed more than 70,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry – in response to political party and militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, which killed about 1,200 people. While the two parties agreed to a ceasefire that went into effect Oct. 10, Israeli officials forced Palestinians in south Gaza to evacuate their homes Tuesday, according to Reuters.

“The University of California Board of Regents have the power in this institution that they think is the only type of power available,” the speaker said. “They do not realize that this is our power, that this is our university.”

William Zelin, a doctoral student in political science and member of Jewish Voice for Peace at UCLA, said he was “moved by the collective energy” at the demonstration. He added that UCLA Divest – a coalition of which JVP is a member – is fighting for the UC to divest from corporations that benefit from weapons manufacturing and raise wages for its workers.

“As an organization we are standing up for Palestinian people and for using our ability as Jewish students to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” he said. “But part of that not only includes standing up against what’s going on there, but also standing up against militarism more broadly, and standing up for racial justice more broadly.”

The demonstrators marched toward Shapiro Fountain at around 2:35 p.m., chanting “Intifada, intifada, all hail the intifada.”

About 50 demonstrators walked down Janss Steps to the Luskin Conference Center at around 3 p.m., chanting, “Disclose. Divest.”

One speaker condemned the UC Board of Regents for its approval of UCPD’s requests for less-than-lethal munition and increases to tuition – decisions it made in September and November, respectively.

[Related: UC Regents amend, renew progressive tuition increases for new students]

The afternoon demonstration ended at around 3:50 p.m., with organizers reminding attendees to go to a reading of “Witness to the Hellfire of Genocide: A Testimony from Gaza” – a memoir by Palestinian writer Wasim Said – co-hosted by UCLA Divest and SJP at UCLA on Tuesday evening.

About 20 people assembled at the Luskin Turnaround at around 6 p.m. to listen to the reading, which included personal accounts of the impacts of Israeli military action in Gaza.

The demonstrators – most of whom wore keffiyehs and face masks – sat on a blue tarp on the sidewalk in front of the turnaround.

An organizer said they planned to read the entire book aloud until 6 a.m., along with the names of 64,000 people killed in Gaza between Oct. 7., 2023, and July 31, 2025.

The organizer began reciting Said’s book, which opens with Said’s account of the night of Oct. 7, 2023, at around 6:30 p.m. The reading included scenes of bombings that resulted in mass casualties.

Tai, a student and member of the UC Divest Coalition, said the reading helped them better comprehend the war in Gaza.

“We might be concerned with midterms or other things while we’re here at the UC,” they said. “But … in some indirect way, we, and especially folks like the UC Regents, UCLA administration, are part of a world where this (the conflict) is happening, and where we have a choice to do something about it.”

Tai added that they believe U.S. civilians are experiencing state-sanctioned violence similar to that in Gaza in the form of ICE raids.

The demonstrators were still reading at the Luskin Turnaround as of 8:30 p.m.

“The crisis continues, and so we’re going to continue to do what we can to fight it,” Tai said.

Contributing reports by Maggie Konecky, Metro editor.