President of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Rountable, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Thursday publicly urged Pro-Palestine protesters to denounce antisemitism in an effort to defuse the potential for additional violent confrontations.
Across the street from the Museum of Tolerance, Hutchinson announced that he was concerned about antisemitism as students across campuses from USC to UCLA, and elsewhere in the state, have called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. He described his concerns over antisemitism as an “ongoing issue.”
“One of the thing that we have called for — the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable — taking it to the streets is that the Gaza protest leaders and campus leaders denounce antisemitism,” Hutchinson said.
He added, “It’s not going to compromise your position, your advocacy for a just and fair resolution of the Gaza crisis. What it will do will defuse a lot of the rancor.”
According to Hutchinson, there are some who people who view the college protests and encampments as antisemitic, but he said that if you denounce antisemitism, it “takes (it) off the table.”
“It’s the right thing to do. Antisemitism has no place in any protest dealing with the Middle East, and especially Gaza,” Hutchinson said.
His remarks came after more than 200 people were taken in to custody and law enforcement officers dismantled a pro-Palestine encampment in early Thursday morning at UCLA.
Led by the California Highway Patrol, officers advanced on the encampment around 2:45 a.m. — nearly nine hours after protesters had been ordered to disperse.
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, a total of 209 people were arrested and booked, mostly for unlawful assembly. They were then released from custody with instructions to appear in court at a later date.