The Gaza Solidarity Encampment at USC continued today as a die-in at Founders Park.
“We’ve just been staying out here with signs and flags illustrating our demands to the university to show them that we will not move and we will not leave our demonstration until our demands are met for diversement,” said Maideh Orangi a philosophy, politics and policy major participating in the encampment.
The protest has been going on for over two days, with several members who stayed at the site overnight.
“I only came last night for two and a half hours,” said Layla MoheyEldin, a senior majoring in international relations and Middle East studies. “There were a lot of people who stayed overnight who slept overnight, the sprinklers were not turned off for them.”
She recounted when DPS arrived and asked for protestors on the grass to show a valid student ID.
“Legally they are not required to show identification because they weren’t under arrest so a lot of people refused,” said MoheyEldin. “They brought in cameras and took a picture of each person’s face for USC’s records. A DPS officer told me when I questioned what the ID’s were for, [...] ‘it was in case they decided to take academic action.’”
This afternoon around 200 people came together for a prayer and peaceful demonstration. Unlike the events on Wednesday where 93 protestors were arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department, there were no DPS or LAPD officers present on site.
“They’ve all been released. I believe they have trials in mid May. The charge I believe is trespassing, criminal trespassing,” according to a media liaison for the divestment coalition who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.
Some protestors encircled around Founders Park to shield Muslim students who chose to conduct their weekly Friday prayer ritual at the site of the encampment today.
“To the people that are around us right now, that was the most beautiful thing,” said a protester speaking through a megaphone after the prayer ended. “This is the real America.”
Following the prayer, those involved continue calling for USC to divest. These chants included “USC what do you say? How many kids have you killed today?” and “The students united will never be defeated.”
Signs were scattered across the perimeter. Some read “Students and workers unite,” and “Free Palestine: Disclose Divest Defend.” One person standing at the protest held up a piece of paper with an emergency contact QR code in case students were arrested again.
“I felt compelled to join because I want to. Myself and the coalition that we’re part of, we all feel compelled to continue demand that the university faces its complicity in this ongoing genocide in Gaza, and it’s an ongoing financial and academic ties to the Israeli apartheid regime and occupied Palestine,” said an anonymous student protestor.
Another common sight across the protest was the number 424-388-1230 etched on several students’ arms with a Sharpie. The number belongs to Jail Support LA, a collective dedicated to supporting college students involved in on campus student occupations.