The Los Angeles Police Department removed a pro-Palestinian Arab encampment at the University of Southern California early Sunday morning, pushing several dozen people out of the campus gates, The New York Times reported.
The encampment had sprouted up nearly two weeks ago in Alumni Park, a central quad on USC’s campus in Los Angeles. Shortly after it did, the university called the police to the campus, where they arrested 93 people, but the protest returned soon after.
Los Angeles police said on Sunday morning that they had made no arrests while clearing the encampment for the second time, according to The New York Times.
Police officers in riot gear had entered the campus before dawn, pushing about 25 protesters out of the campus’s metal gates.
Only a few of the tents were still standing, barricaded by wooden pallets and decorated with messages and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags. Signs taped to trees carried messages such as “every Palestinian has a right to live just like you and I,” and “disclose, divest, defend.”
The encampment was cleared days after USC announced it had canceled its main stage graduation ceremony, which was scheduled for May 10, under new safety measures being taken as the campus is roiled by protests stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.
Anti-Israel protests, which have at times turned violent, have been recorded on campuses throughout the US in recent weeks.
On Saturday, a group of pro-Palestinian Arab protesters at the University of Michigan briefly interrupted the spring commencement ceremony.
On Thursday, LAPD and California Highway Patrol cleared an anti-Israel protest encampment on the UCLA campus, arresting 132 people.
On Wednesday, 17 protesters were arrested at the University of Texas at Dallas after law enforcement dismantled an encampment that pro-Palestinian Arab students set up in the early morning hours.
A day earlier, police officers entered Columbia University as pro-Palestinian Arab protesters remained on the campus.