Some of the anti-Israel agitators arrested Wednesday when authorities cleared an anti-Israel camp at the University of California, Irvine, claimed to be professors at the university.
The university announced Thursday that at least 47 people were arrested after hundreds of protesters stormed the campus and set up barricades. A university spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital that the chaos began when hundreds of protesters entered the Physical Sciences Auditorium on the California campus and began barricading the building.
Schools transitioned to remote operations on Thursday.
Video footage taken by KTTV showed a man being arrested claiming to be a UCI faculty member.
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On Wednesday, a man claiming to be a faculty member at the University of California, Irvine was arrested during an anti-Israel protest. (KTTV)
“I’m a faculty member at the University of California, Irvine,” he told reporters as he was led away in handcuffs by police. “I’m here to support the students who have the right to peacefully protest.”
“And unlike the people who are now escorting me, I think they are human, my students are not interested in violence. They are only interested in drawing attention to the genocide. .”
Another video circulating online claims a woman is a tenured professor in UCI’s School of Global and International Relations. In addition to criticizing Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, she also criticized the police response to the protests.
“These young people will pay the price for these terrible decisions,” she shouted as she was handcuffed and led off campus. “The police officers here today are ruining scholarships for thousands of students who could have gone to school, received books, and had a place to live. .”
“But instead, the Prime Minister, who is a ruthless man, has decided to throw thousands of dollars worth of state funds, paid for by taxpayers, into the trash,” she added. “If students don’t have a future, what kind of job do I have?”
Police invade the University of California, Irvine campus after anti-Israel agitators swarm the building.Students are asked to “please leave the area”
Demonstrators gather as law enforcement officers are deployed to the University of California, Irvine, after demonstrators opposing the war in Gaza besieged a physical science lecture hall. (Reuters/Mike Blake)
Fox News Digital has reached out to UCI.
Most of those arrested Wednesday were detained on suspicion of failing to disperse after direct police orders and trespassing.
In response to the police response, Irvine Mayor Farah Khan said, “It is unfortunate that peaceful free speech protests are always met with violence. It’s not a threat to anyone.”
“The UCI leadership must do everything possible to not create a violent scenario here. These are unarmed students,” she wrote to X.
Will O’Neill, the mayor of nearby Newport Beach, responded.
Demonstrators gather as law enforcement officers are deployed to the University of California, Irvine. (Reuters/Mike Blake)
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“Newport Beach police officers are currently in Irvine providing assistance in response to requests for mutual assistance requests,” he wrote. “Your careless language appears to pre-emptively accuse our officers and the many law enforcement officers who responded to violence, if that is what you are saying. , your message is under the authority of the Mayor. If not, then make it clear right away.”
The UCI Divest protest group said its demand for UCI to withdraw from Israel was “accepted by riot police and nine different police departments.”
