No arrests as Los Angeles police clear USC pro-Palestinian encampment
Al Jazeera
Students and other protesters have called for universities to divest their financial ties to Israel.
Protests against Israel’s war on Gaza continue across university campuses in the United States as graduation season gets under way, with police in Los Angeles making no arrests as they cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Southern California (USC).
After USC requested assistance, police entered the encampment about 5am local time (12:00 GMT) on Sunday and worked with campus police to remove tents as students peacefully left the area, police said.
The move comes a day after at least 25 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested as police cleared an encampment at the University of Virginia (UVA).
Tensions flared at UVA’s campus in Charlottesville, where protests had been largely peaceful until Saturday morning, when police officers in riot gear were seen in a video moving on an encampment on the campus’s lawn and cuffing some demonstrators with zip ties.
Campus protests have emerged as a political flashpoint during a US election year as Democratic President Joe Biden seeks a second term in office. Police have arrested more than 2,000 people during protests at dozens of campuses around the country.