On April 29th, I heard that UC Irvine students started their encampment protest for a Free Palestine. The next day, I took a stroll to the UCI campus to check it out. I walked around the circular-shaped encampment, surrounded by barriers covered by handmade posters. There were lots of chalk writings and drawings on the ground. I also noticed banners. I did a video of this very peaceful and quiet encampment. The students were mostly just hanging out together, reading, or playing card games.
On May 7th, during an evening walking meetup at the UCI campus, we walked by the encampment. I noticed it had grown with more tents, more people, and more chalk writings on the ground. But it was still very quiet and peaceful. I took some quick snapshots before I continued walking with the walking meetup. I later did a second video.
On May 15th, I had another UCI meetup at five o’clock in the afternoon. I walked outside at four, and I immediately noticed loud buzzing sounds from helicopters overhead. These helicopters looked big and intimidating, similar to military or police helicopters, and they appeared to be swarming over the UCI campus. I wondered what was going on. I continued to walk across the street to the UCI campus.
Before I went to the meetup room, I decided to check out the protest. As I neared the encampment, I noticed there were many students as well as protesters chanting in the background. I walk through the crowd and check out the destroyed Gaza Solidarity Encampment. It looked like a warzone, similar to the destroyed communities in Gaza.
I almost started looking under the rubble for students’ bodies hidden underneath or inside distorted tents. I wondered what happened because the protesters were very peaceful and quiet, at least every time I had walked by. I did a third video of the destruction. I also noticed many students were facing the parking lot while chanting because the parking lot was filled with police, ready for combat. It looked like Police State at a very peaceful and quiet campus to dismantle a peaceful protest to Free Palestine from Zionist Israel. It didn’t make sense.
Since it was almost five o’clock, I decided to go to the meetup building, where we watched a video about AI and discussed it, and it was interrupted with a warning for students to stay away from the vicinity of the protest area, like it was some big deal. After the meetup, we went out to dinner nearby. I noticed the weather was cool and cloudy during the evenings.
When I returned home at nine o’clock, I watched some Youtube videos about the UC Irvine encampment being dismantled by the police. Many news stations were there covering it—Fox11LA, NBCLA, KTLA5, and KCAL. The news stations noted that the students started occupying the Physical Science building by placing their tents near the building. They also stated that between 100 to 200 students had entered the building to occupy the inside. The door knobs from the outside were tied shut with strings and the area was barricaded with items.
After police had cleared the barricaded area and cut off the tied strings around the doorknobs, they entered to see an empty and clean auditorium with lights off. They went back to the protesting students. They told them to leave the area or they will be arrested. Few had left, but most stayed to make a statement about the situation in Palestine. I think they just wanted their voice to be heard on the news station in order to help Free Palestine from Zionist Israel’s occupation of over 75 years of terror, destruction, mass murder, and displacement of Palestinians in order to steal all of Palestine for the Greater Israel Project.
I have a feeling that someone sent out that message about 100 people occupying the inside of the Physical Science building to get media attention for the students’ cause in order to expose Zionist Israel as well as other complicit Zionist corporations and politicians supporting Israel’s continuous destruction and mass murders for the Zionist agenda. Many corporations continuously send weapons to Israel as well as the Biden Administration, AIPAC, CUFI, etc, continuously fund this genocide until Israel annihilates Palestine off the map. And, since UC Irvine is a very peaceful and quiet university, as well as town, it doesn’t get too much notice from the media, like the universities in the big cities that are always on the news for something crazy.
Moreover, many professors, faculty members, and people from the community stayed at the encampment to get arrested in order to speak out on the news about the current situation in Palestine. Many students were prepared for anything from the police. They wore gas masks, covid masks, goggles, and scarf head covering. They just wanted their voice to be heard on the media in order to expose the media’s continuous lies for the Zionist agenda.
