Watch | Jewish UCLA Student Eli Tsives Claims Pro-Palestinian Protesters Barred Him From Entering Campus

UCLA student Eli Tsives (right, unmasked) posted a video claiming that pro-Palestinian protesters (masked, left) blocked him from entering the campus. In this screengrab, he is seen countering the protesters. (Image: X)

Eli Tsives shared footage on social media claiming that he was being blocked from attending classes but some are claiming that he was only blocked from entering via the main gate.

Jewish student Eli Tsives who is enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, shared footage on social media on Monday claiming that he was being denied access to his on-campus class by pro-Palestinian activists staging protests at the university premises.

He posted several videos on X claiming that Palestinian student protesters have formed a human chain preventing him from entering classes.

“They didn’t let me get to class using the main entrance! Instead they forced me to walk around. Shame on these people!” he could be heard saying in the video.

Eli Tsives’s profile on website Backstage says that he is a student at the UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television and describes him as an actor and filmmaker based in Los Angeles and San Jose.

Though the video does not show any scuffles between the pro-Palestinian protesters and Tsives, the protesters are seen blocking him from entering on-campus classes.

However, a journalist from Spectrum News, Jeremy Lindenfeld in a tweet made a counterclaim and said that Tsives was not blocked from campus but was rather stopped from entering the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and that one activist blocking Eli is a Jew just like him.

Other videos of Eli Tsives have also emerged on social media where he is seen giving a fiery speech with an Israeli flag draped all over him. “Israel is not going anywhere! The Jewish people are not going anywhere!” he is heard saying. The post on X accompanying the video showed him addressing a pro-Israel rally across the pro-Palestine encampment at UCLA.

A few dozen University of California, Los Angeles, faculty members staged a walkout on Monday, joining pro-Palestinian protesters who have been camping around-the-clock on campus. The teachers and other employees said they came out to amplify the demands of demonstrators.

The scene was less tense than on Sunday, when protesters shouted and shoved each other during dueling demonstrations.

Police set up barricades before hundreds of people on both sides joined a growing crowd at UCLA’s Dickson court, near where pro-Palestinian students have been staying round-the-clock in tents. Counter-protesters who organized a “Stand in Support of Jewish Students” rally said their goal was to “stand up against hatred and antisemitism.”

(with inputs from Jerusalem Post and Associated Press)