At a rally at the University of California, Los Angeles last Sunday, Israeli diaspora group leader Elan Carr told more than 1,000 demonstrators that Jewish mobilization at the university had begun.
“We're going to take back our streets. We're going to take back our campuses, from Columbia University to UCLA and everywhere in between,” Carr, the chief executive of the Israeli American Council, told the crowd.
The U.S. and Israeli national anthems were sung, prayers, speeches from Jewish leaders, and Israeli pop songs were performed. But just before the rally, hundreds of pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators confronted each other, shouting insults and threats. Fighting broke out after a barrier set up by the university to separate the two sides was breached.
It was the precarious beginning of what would become one of the most violent campus riots. Days later, large numbers of counter-protesters attacked UCLA's pro-Palestinian camp, leading to clashes late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.
Carr said in an interview that the Israeli American Council, which describes itself as a nonpartisan group representing Israelis and Israeli Americans, does not condone the violence. But the nonprofit group's plans to hold more counter-protests on or near other university campuses raise the possibility of further confrontations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian factions.
“My concern is that this is a combustible situation exacerbated by instigators who appear to be intent on escalating the level of violence against the other side,” Col. said David Myers, a professor of Jewish history at the University of California, Los Angeles, who tried to act as a rebel. Buffer between both sides. “This could spread like an epidemic.”
Since the April 18 arrest of a protester at New York's Columbia University, pro-Palestinian activists have launched similar protests at dozens of public and private universities across the United States.
Outraged by the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip, students have called for a cease-fire and ordered universities to shut down companies that do business with Israel, which has been at war in the Palestinian territory since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. demanded that they withdraw. Killed 1,200 people.
Demonstrations have spread to more campuses in recent days, with encampments popping up and students occupying buildings and the central square. Due to safety concerns, access to some universities has been restricted to students and faculty, and more than 2,000 people have been arrested or detained.
Jews have taken part in pro-Palestinian protests in many places. However, many Jewish students have reported feeling unsafe and experiencing harassment during the protests. Carr said his organization is working with other Jewish organizations to respond to that climate of fear.
He said it was time to move from “just condemning” the pro-Palestinian protests to “bringing active, real support to Jewish students and faculty who are actually suffering and feeling abandoned.”
He said the Israeli American Council is “leading or integrally involved in multiple events” in each city in the coming days, some of which include May 5, which is commemorated in Israel. It is planned to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day. He listed gatherings in more than a dozen locations, including Austin, Las Vegas and New York.
On Thursday, in Philadelphia, a counter-demonstration organized by the Israeli American Council took place at the University of Pennsylvania. The participants submitted a petition to Penn Interim President asking the university to disband the pro-Palestinian camp that has been on campus for a week.
That night, counter-protesters played footage of the October 7 attack on screens set up near the encampment. Just before the film began, pro-Israel supporters began shouting at the camp through loudspeakers, but were soon drowned out by chants and drumming from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Carr said some rallies will be held on university campuses, others adjacent to university campuses and still others further away from universities. They all plan to coordinate with authorities.
A clash at UCLA late Tuesday turned the campus into a national flashpoint. Masked counter-protesters entered an encampment set up last week by students opposed to the war in Gaza. The attackers threw firecrackers into the camp, damaged the outer walls and threw heavy objects at pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
No arrests have been made in connection with the attack.
The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, which partnered with IAC at last Sunday's rally, condemned the violence and said the UCLA attackers did not represent the Jewish community or its values.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesperson said about 200 people were arrested Thursday after law enforcement raided an allegedly illegal encampment. Most were charged with minor offenses such as unlawful assembly and released.
Los Angeles is home to a large and active Jewish and Israeli community, so it's perhaps no surprise that the first major pro-Israel rally was held here.
Approximately 600,000 Jews live in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, second only to New York. Many members of Los Angeles' Jewish community either fled pogroms in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s or are descendants of those who survived the Holocaust. More recently, since the 1980s, large numbers of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, Iran, and Israel have settled in the city.
“This is probably the most diverse Jewish community in the United States, and it's very politically diverse,” said Myers, the UCLA professor. “That diversity was reflected in the demonstrations on campus,” he said, adding that Jewish students have participated in pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests.
According to independent estimates, approximately 250,000 Israelis and Israeli-Americans live in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
The San Fernando Valley, which stretches across the northern half of the city, has for decades attracted expatriates from Israel to establish synagogues, open restaurants, and promote cultural events.
IAC began as a small grassroots effort in the Valley in 2007 and quickly grew after receiving a multimillion-dollar donation from casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021, and his Israeli-born wife Miriam Adelson. grown.
The organization's revenue increased from $5.5 million in 2013 and about $500,000 in 2010 to $18.6 million in 2022. We currently have chapters in 21 cities from Atlanta to Las Vegas.
IAC supports a wide range of programs for Israeli Americans in Los Angeles and elsewhere, including youth leadership training for pro-Israel advocacy and strengthening participants' Jewish identity and connection to Israel. Includes activities to do.
On Wednesday, private donations poured in from across the United States. A small window that popped up in the corner of IAC's website showed the donor's name, amount donated, and place of residence.
Carr said the IAC has not launched a specific campaign to raise funds for the rally. Starting Oct. 7, he said, he created an emergency fund for donations that go directly to Israel.
Carr, a former Los Angeles prosecutor and U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, served as special envoy to combat anti-Semitism during the Trump administration. He was born in the United States to Israeli parents and became IAC chief executive in October, days before the Hamas attack.
The group has claimed to be apolitical since its founding, but in recent years some backers have expressed concern about the IAC's shift to the right, according to multiple sources and Jewish media reports. It is said that he withdrew from the group. “We have people of all types and races,” said Carr, a Republican who has previously run for office.
UCLA has become a center of pro-Palestinian activity. The lush, 105-year-old campus is located in the upscale Jewish neighborhood of Westwood, said Fernando Guerra, director of Loyola Marymount University's Los Angeles Research Center.
“If you had guessed a month ago where the most pro-Israel response to the war would be, your first guess would have been UCLA,” he said.
But he noted that the clashes run counter to Los Angeles' long history of solidarity between the city's Jewish community and others who feel marginalized. He said the opinions of many young people who demonstrated this week were shaped by their only knowledge of Israel's right-wing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“All the students have seen is Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government, which to them appears to be authoritarian, out of line, and not upholding democratic ideals,” Guerra said.
Report contributor: Sean Huebler, campbell robertson and John Hurdle. kitty bennett contributed to research.