UCLA students and faculty join walkout supporting pro-Palestinian protesters

Security appeared ready Monday for a noon UCLA student and faculty walkout in support of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, as a tent encampment remained settled on the campus lawn at Dickson Plaza.

Monday is the fifth day of protests at UCLA and just after noon, faculty and students responded to the call for a class walkout.

As SKYCal flew overhead, a group of about 100 students and faculty gathered, and around 12:30 p.m., one by one they were allowed into the fenced-off encampment area by controlled access, with a check-in station.

Signs held by those gathered read "Faculty for Justice for Palestine," "UCLA Faculty and Staff, We Stand With Our Students," and "Walk out for Gaza"

The walkout group continued to grow in size, with more supporters trickling in over the noon hour.

The pro-Palestinian encampment on the UCLA campus went up Thursday morning, and Sunday things got physical between that group and pro-Israel demonstrators.

Demonstrators breached the physical barrier the school had established to separate the groups, and school administration said one group of demonstrators breached the barrier, resulting in "physical altercations."

Prior to Sunday, UCLA had said the protesters' activity on campus had been mostly peaceful and had not interrupted any campus activities.

Mary Osako, vice chancellor of UCLA Strategic Communications, issued a statement Sunday saying, "UCLA has a long history of being a place of peaceful protest, and we are heartbroken to report that today, some physical altercations broke out among demonstrators on Royce Quad.

"We have since instituted additional security measures and increased the numbers of our safety team members on site."

Organizers of UCLA's Palestine Solidarity Encampment, similar to their counterparts at University of Southern California, issued a list of demands calling for divestment of all University of California and UCLA Foundation funds from companies tied to Israel, along with a demand that the university call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and an academic boycott by UC against Israeli universities, including a suspension of study-abroad programs.

More protests surrounding the war in Gaza are planned Monday at USC. Activists held a morning demonstration calling on the university's president to begin "emergency campus student dialogue" in response to the demonstrations.

Protest encampments also went up Monday at UC Irvine and UC Riverside.