The UCLA Muslim student wears sunglasses, a kaffiyeh scarf and face mask to avoid recognition on campus. She's asked to move her classes online to prevent others from knowing her route and following her. She will speak only on the condition of anonymity to protect herself and her future as an aspiring nurse.

But her caution has not helped her feel safe. She is terrified by the hate that has rained down on her and her fellow pro-Palestinian supporters since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a massive and continuing assault on Gaza. She has been spat on and called a terrorist multiple times, she said. Men who have come to the encampment have threatened rape. A woman brandished a stun gun at her on campus, laughing.

But nothing was as chilling as Tuesday night, when a mob of counterprotesters began to attack the "Palestinian Solidarity Encampment" erected by students last week, tearing down barriers, assaulting campers and screaming epithets, as captured in videos by The Times.

"I never felt more scared in my life," she said. "I felt my life was in danger."

The violence at what had largely been a peaceful student protest at UCLA traumatized and angered pro-Palestinian supporters, who are demanding an end to Israeli actions in Gaza and divestment in the country — the biggest wave of campus demonstrations since the 1960s civil rights movement. It also highlighted the intense fears among college students across the country as the Israel-Palestinian conflict foments escalating campus protests and reports of physical and verbal assaults, doxing and threats to academic and professional careers.

A new national study led by the University of Chicago has for the first time documented in detail the extent of those fears and reasons for them — along with student attitudes toward genocide, antisemitism, Islamophobia and possible ways to calm tensions.

The study found that 58% of students who identified as Jewish and 52% of those who said they were Muslim have feared for their safety since Oct. 7. An additional 16% of neither background also expressed fears. This represents as many as 3 million students across the country.

"The campus fears are more intense and more widespread than what we've previously known," said Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political science professor and director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats who wrote the report.

The nonpartisan analysis is based on a nationally representative sample of 5,000 college students at more than 600 four-year academic institutions included in two commissioned surveys between mid-December and mid-January — before the most recent clashes at numerous universities throughout the nation, including USC, the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia. The surveys were conducted at the University of Chicago by NORC, previously the National Opinion Research Center, and College Pulse, with narrow margins of error from 1% to 1.94%.

In one finding, about 10% of college students would permit student groups to call for genocide against Jews, and 13% of college students say that when Jews are attacked, it is because they deserve it. The same percentage would permit that call against Muslims.

...continued

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.