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Campus Protests: Police Clear UCLA Encampment, Columbia Protesters Arraigned
(www.improvethenews.org)
- California police officers began taking down the fortified pro-Palestine encampment on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus early Thursday. The development came roughly 24 hours after the camp was attacked by pro-Israel protestors. CBS (LR: 2 CP: 5)
- Most of the encampment was torn down by 5 a.m. local time. While some protesters remained as police closed in, others were handcuffed and led away. It's not clear how many of those arrested were affiliated with UCLA. NBC (LR: 2 CP: 4)
- After canceling Wednesday's classes due to the violence earlier that morning, UCLA announced "limited" campus operations and remote classes on Thursday and Friday, and encouraged employees to work remotely if possible. FOX News (LR: 4 CP: 4)
- Non-student protesters were among the more than 280 arrested between Columbia University and City College of New York. They included a 42-year-old doctor and a 47-year-old man who has a history of clashing with police. New York Post (LR: 5 CP: 5)
- In NYC, thousands of anti-war Jewish protesters demonstrated outside the home of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday, around 300 of whom were arrested. Speakers at the event included students suspended from Columbia and Barnard. Guardian (LR: 2 CP: 5)
- Campus protests have continued across the country, with 34 arrested at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and 14 at Tulane University. At New York University, 68 of the 133 arrested so far were reportedly not affiliated with the school. wsj.com
Right narrative:
- The main group behind these encampments, Students for Justice in Palestine, is funded largely by George Soros's charities and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, among other wealthy elites. Organizers are paid thousands of dollars to build these encampments and buy the tents, food, and other resources used in most of them. Foreign money was likely also behind these illegal campus occupations, which is why police were justifiably called in to shut them down.
NEW YORK POST (LR: 5 CP: 5)
Left narrative:
- The 'outside agitator' trope has been used to crackdown on peaceful protests for decades. From the Ku Klux Klan lying about "communists" infiltrating the civil rights movement to alleged agitators during the 2020 BLM protests, these evidence lacking accusations have always existed as an excuse to arrest activists. Today, however, the tactic of calling protesters antisemitic is thrown into the mix, which allows the pro-Israel side to smear anti-Zionists as anti-Jewish.
INTERCEPT (LR: 1 CP: 1)
Nerd narrative:
- There is a 50% chance that at least 114K US Jews will move to Israel by 2050, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
METACULUS (LR: 3 CP: 3)