Banana skins from the UCLA encampment

Cockburn wasn’t sure how he would occupy his time after the season finale of The Bachelor aired last month. As it turns out, following daily updates from the pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of California, Los Angeles campus is better than anything on TV. The latest scene — banana warfare —is particularly absurd.

The encampment, which began on April 25 with 100 students, has swelled to over 400 protesters. Organized by UC Divest, the activists are demanding that the university system divest from companies associated with the Israeli military, cut ties with Los Angeles Police Department and academically boycott Israeli universities.

On Friday, encampment dwellers claimed counter-protesters threatened to “sexually assault” a student with a banana after finding out she had a severe banana allergy. The only video evidence shows a student outside the encampment eating a banana and dancing. While far from violent, the mere presence of a weapon of such mass destruction was enough to send students quivering in fear. “The next day they came back waving bananas like settlers waving machine guns & smeared bananas everywhere,” wrote one user on X. 

There was a protestor in the liberated zone at @UCLA with a potentially fatal banana allergy. Counterprotestors invaded the encampment and saw all the no bananas warnings. The next day they came back waving bananas like settlers waving machine guns & smeared bananas everywhere. pic.twitter.com/sPlTVnwHsu

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Around midnight on Tuesday morning, sixty counter-protesters attempted to breach the encampment, presumably armed with bananas — banana launchers and grenades are already in the works. The attack took six UC police officers armed in riot gear to break up the fighting. 

For their part, the UC administration seem unconcerned with both the escalating banana warfare and the calls for divestment. 

“The University of California has consistently opposed calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel,” said a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President. “While the university affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchange of ideas on our campuses.”

Cockburn

Mischief, mayhem and Washington gossip. Send tips and party invites to cockburn@thespectator.com.

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Banana skins from the UCLA encampment

Cockburn

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