Police Remove Last UC Pro-Palestinian ‘Encampment’ at UC Santa Barbara

Police removed a pro-Palestinian “encampment” at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) Saturday night into Sunday morning, making five arrests, according to local media reports.

In a statement reported by local news channels, the university administration said:

On Sunday morning, following repeated messages by the University’s administration that the encampment was illegal and a violation of campus policies, police cleared the area and the campus removed a number of tents that had remained.

Several individuals who remained at the site on Sunday morning and were given multiple warnings to leave the area before and during the clearing of the tents.

While most of the individuals complied with the warnings, five individuals declined to disperse and were taken into police custody. Once the tents were removed, the University resumed normal operations.

The student newspaper, the Daily Nexus, reported:

Over 75 police officers swept the UCSB Liberated Zone encampment on June 23, arresting six individuals, according to encampment reports and police radio correspondence. The encampment, which was established on May 1 in solidarity with pro-Palestinian university encampments across the nation, was the last remaining UC encampment and had lasted 54 days.

The two sides accused each other of negotiating in bad faith.

Several “encampments” arose at University of California campuses from April through June. Some dispersed peacefully; others, notably at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), were cleared by police.

Jewish students reported being intimidated, prevented from moving through public spaces, and even targeted at some of the UC campuses.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.