Eli Tsives, 19, a student majoring in theater and film at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), tried to attend a class on campus this week but was blocked from entering the building by several students wrapped in keffiyehs and wearing face masks. Tsives, who was wearing a Star of David necklace, showed his student ID and asked to be allowed to pass, but they stood firm and blocked his path.
Tsives, in his first year at the university, says he feels increasingly unsafe on campus. He noted that the administration is failing to protect Jewish students who face verbal and physical hate incidents daily. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian anti-Israel student protesters set up camp on Bruin Walk, painting a large Star of David with the message: "Stay Away."
"They equate the Star of David with a swastika and defile our beautiful campus with graffiti," Tsives said. Tsives uploaded a video to Instagram, which quickly went viral, boosting his follower count from 1,000 to 20,000 overnight. However, this publicity comes at a cost.
"They now know where I live. My family and others are helping me with personal security because things spiraled out of control," he said.
Tsives complained to the administration but received the baffling response that they had no intention of removing the "peaceful protesters."
“I have a very simple response to that: Shame on them. These are not peaceful protesters. They are breaking the law, calling for intifadas, which entail the genocide of Jews. The administration is well within their legal right to call upon UCPD [University of California Police Department] or LAPD to come and remove and arrest all the protestors. The fact that they are not doing it shows how scared they are of the mob,” he said.
Despite it all, Tsives says that he doesn't regret his decision to study at UCLA.
“I do not regret a single second of it,” he said. “The Jewish people, especially Jewish students, need a voice. They need someone to demonstrate that there’s no reason to fear these bullies, that we cannot yield to their intimidation. This is my voice, and if my face becomes the face of that voice, so be it. I view this as a blessing in disguise. I have people walking up to me and thanking me saying that my courage encouraging them to also be courageous and speak up. I hope to see the day when Jewish students can walk on campus with a Star of David without fear."
Confrontations at UCLA
(Video: Social Media)
On Sunday, thousands of pro-Israel protesters gathered at UCLA, waving flags of Israel and the U.S. in solidarity with Jewish students. They chanted and held up their flags while a few meters away, separated by a barricade, stood the opposing protesters.
Ruth Sonbolian was there with her children when her 20-year-old daughter was brutally attacked. "My younger daughter dropped her flag, and once they noticed it, they swarmed into our section and began stomping on it. When my older daughter Elinor bent down to retrieve it, they started kicking the flag and her head,” Sonbolian said.
Distraught, she rushed to help her daughter but was forcefully pushed back. I fell to the ground and witnessed my daughter being thrown into the air and crashing onto the asphalt. My son helped her up. She briefly lost consciousness. We called the police and an ambulance, but they refused to come,” she said.
Sonbolian explained that the police informed her they couldn't enter the campus and instructed her to get her daughter out in order to receive assistance. “With the help of Hatzalah, we took her out, and she was admitted to the emergency room at UCLA. She couldn’t sleep all night due to pain and trauma. When I questioned the LAPD about their inaction, they callously stated that they didn’t want to provoke riots or violence in the town. They seemed indifferent to the potential loss of Jewish lives in the process,” she said.