sportspolitika | On Sunday, however, the mood turned ugly when thousands of demonstrators, including students and non-students, showed up on campus to protest their cause. Some joined the Palestinian solidarity encampment that was set up earlier in the week, while pro-Israeli counter-protestors demonstrated across from the encampment.
Some of those demonstrators reportedly broke through the metal barricades that had been placed to separate the two factions, leading to skirmishes between the opposing groups. One video showed groups of protesters and counter-protesters clashing, with at least one person punching someone else.
Among the assailants was David Kaminsky, an Israeli boxer and gym owner who was caught on camera using racial insults and spitting on protestors.
Kaminsky was quickly identified on social media and has since deactivated his personal Instagram, as well as the account belonging to his Kaminsky Boxing Gym.
Kaminsky was further recognized by Israeli MMA fighter Haim Gozali, who expressed approval of Kaminsky’s actions in a post on Telegram. Meanwhile, Gozali himself has been garnering attention for inscribing the names of individuals he considers adversaries on artillery shells destined for Gaza. My name was among those inscribed.
The boxer holds a 6-1 professional record, which includes three knockout victories. He has not fought since 2020, when Clay Collard handed Kaminsky his first professional loss following a split decision on the Gabriel Flores Jr.-Josec Ruiz undercard in Las Vegas.
Kaminsky has shifted his attention to managing his gym in LA’s San Fernando Valley. In the previous year, the gym gained attention when news surfaced of rapper Blueface being stabbed during a confrontation on the premises. Security footage suggested Kaminsky intervened, trying to separate Blueface from the attacker, who was able to stab the rapper in the leg before fleeing the scene with his Rottweiler.
Kaminsky may be the only professional fighter to have been identified among the converging protestors at UCLA, this is not the first example of combat sports athletes attempting to intimidate peaceful demonstrators.
Neo-Nazi MMA fighter Robert Rundo and his white supremacist Rise Above Movement (RAM) were notorious for attacking protestors during tense demonstrations in the US following Donald Trump’s election in 2016. Three years later, a mob of MMA fighters from a gym owned by an oligarch with ties to Vladimir Putin chased away local protestors who opposed the building of an Orthodox church in the Russian hinterlands. The church was being sponsored by the same oligarch who ran the fight club.
While Kaminsky has not been seen since being caught on camera hurling racial slurs earlier this week, the UCLA Gaza solidarity encampment continues to face various acts of aggression. Truthout reported that pro-Israel protestors were “hurling fireworks at the structure and beating demonstrators as campus security and city police stood by.” Such inaction from UCLA and local police contrasts sharply with the fierce crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations at universities across the US, including Columbia University in New York City, where police arrested hundreds of students late Tuesday.
