UCLA police arrested three protesters Wednesday, including one who slapped an officer, as they tried to stage an unauthorized screening of a documentary glorifying last spring’s anti-Israel encampments that gripped campuses nationwide.
Around 30 officers in riot gear descended on around 200 protesters gathered to watch The Encampments. School officials warned the organizer, UCLA’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, three times that it wasn't allowed to screen the film before law enforcement was sent in.
BREAKING: UCLA police have arrested several students and confiscated what appears to be the speaker equipment for tonight’s screening of The Encampment.
Instead of decisively removing the agitators when it mattered (last year), the university is now resorting to force to silence… pic.twitter.com/mK69Y6uzOJ
— Stu (@thestustustudio) May 1, 2025
Police arrested two keffiyeh-clad activists and confiscated their screening equipment. A third protester was arrested earlier in the day after slapping an officer as they blocked her from setting up the film screening. UCLA had deployed additional police officers to campus ahead of the one-year encampment anniversary, the Daily Bruin reported.
The arrests come nearly a week after the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office announced that only 2 of the 205 protesters arrested during last spring’s violent encampment would face criminal charges, citing UCLA’s "failure or inability to assist" in the investigation. The University of California system is also facing a Justice Department investigation into whether it "has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin against its professors, staff and other employees by allowing an Antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses."
SJP, which helped organize UCLA’s violent anti-Israel encampment and is under suspension for vandalizing a regent’s home, planned to screen The Encampments Wednesday on Royce Quad to commemorate the anniversary of the violent end to UCLA’s encampment at the location where the tents were established.
"This film screening should serve as a reminder that the confrontations with zionist & state violence on UCLA’s campus were a sliver of one Palestinian’s every day reality. That is why we will continue to fight until Palestine is free," the group wrote on Instagram last week.
But the event wasn’t sanctioned, and campus police closed off the area around 2:30 p.m. They arrested the first protester, who is unaffiliated with the university, and issued her an administrative "stay away" order, barring her from campus, according to the Daily Bruin.
"UCLA is committing genocide and refuses to meet students’ demands to divest from weapons manufacturers," the protester said while in police custody. "Everyone pull up to the film screening. Fuck these pigs."
Earlier today, a student activist at UCLA was arrested following a confrontation with police.
The arrest comes as the one-year anniversary of the UCLA encampment approaches, amid a heightened police presence on campus. pic.twitter.com/29UxckrRCA
— Stu (@thestustustudio) April 30, 2025
SJP tried moving to two other locations on campus, with around 200 protesters joining in, but both times university officials again told them the screening wasn’t allowed. Police in riot gear swarmed in at 9 p.m. to disperse the crowd, arresting two more activists. The protesters left the area an hour later.
A UCLA spokesman pointed the Washington Free Beacon to a statement from the university, which noted that SJP’s suspension forbids the group from reserving campus space and that any student violating its time, place, and manner policies "is subject to disciplinary action."
"Upon learning that SJP was promoting an unauthorized screening on April 30, 2025, UCLA Office of Student Conduct communicated to the suspended organization that moving forward with the unauthorized event would violate campus policy and the terms of the suspension," the statement read. As organizers tried moving the screening to other locations on campus, the number of people gathered "swiftly dwindled to about 65 people – many of whom were not affiliated with UCLA."
"It is deeply troubling that—even under heightened safety and security presence—individuals chose to come to our campus to commit an act of violence," the statement continued. "Arrests have been made, but let us emphasize: any UCLA student who engages in violence against another member of our community will face disciplinary consequences."
UCLA temporarily suspended SJP in February after its members vandalized the home of University of California regent and United Talent Agency vice chairman Jay Sures. The SJP and Graduate SJP chapters harassed the Jewish chancellor’s family, surrounded a family member’s vehicle, and held a sign that read, "Jonathan Sures you will pay, until you see your final day."
The group was also pivotal in organizing the encampment at UCLA. The anti-Israel protesters blocked Jewish students from accessing parts of campus for a week. Police were eventually called in and broke up the encampment, arresting hundreds, but only after a violent clash between the agitators and counterprotesters.
UCLA, however, continues to argue that it didn’t have a responsibility to stop the anti-Israel radicals from excluding Jews from parts of campus. Students could only gain access to the occupied area if given clearance and a wristband. The administration didn’t call in police until violence broke out between protesters and counterprotesters. After a tense, hours-long showdown—during which protesters likened officers to the Ku Klux Klan—authorities dismantled the tents.
UCLA police did not respond to requests for comment.
Update, May 2, 8:11 a.m.: This story has been updated to include a statement from UCLA.