Jewish UCLA student: 'Jews of LA said enough is enough'

Eli Tsives, a Jewish student at UCLA, in Los Angeles, California, who earlier this week was denied entry to his campus by anti-Israel protesters, spoke with Israel's Kan News about clashes that took place overnight (Tuesday) at the university between anti-Israel and pro-Israel demonstrators.

Tsives said he was only on campus on Tuesday night to document footage and did not participate in the riots, adding: "We Jewish UCLA students stand for peace, we do not want to participate in these riots because we do not believe that that is necessarily the correct way to protest."

With this, he notes that "the Jews of LA said enough is enough. Jewish people in LA noticed that these pro-Hamas students inside the encampment have been absolutely harassing many many many Jews at UCLA, and they realized that if the UCLA administration is not going to do anything, if UCPD or LAPD are not going to do anything, then they need to do something. So they took it into their own hands and they arrived yesterday with a very big crowd, with the sole purpose of attracting police attention so the police could finally go in and take down the encampment."

Tsives sees the Jewish counterprotest as a success since, while the encampment was not removed, the police did arrive and before that, there was no police presence on campus at all.

Regarding the incident in which he was blocked from entering the campus by anti-Israel protesters, Tsives said the UCLA administration should be "ashamed of themselves" for the way they are handling the situation. "It took our chancellor far too long to release a public statement. This is not just happening at UCLA, it's happening at many UCs and many college campuses around the world. Jewish students simply do not feel safe being harassed, we're being segregated, segregation in the US in 2024, and the administrations are not doing anything about it and it's absolutely unacceptable," he said in tears.

Despite the recent events, Tsives said he would not leave UCLA: "I think I've come to UCLA for a reason, and now I've been put into this spotlight of Jewish advocacy. I think I could really do some good. I've pretty much indirectly, not by my choice, been put into this place of leadership and I will do everything in my power to lead Jewish students through this time of struggle to show Jewish students that we don't need to be afraid of these pro-Hamas mobsters, we're better than them, we're going to rise on top, and we are not going to succumb to their intimidation."