A federal judge has given the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) one week to draft a plan that would ensure its Jewish students won’t be blocked from attending classes by anti-Israel protesters, as happened this spring.
UCLA has been among the many campuses in the United States and around the world where demonstrators set up encampments in protest of the war in Gaza, which was Israel’s response to the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7 that left about 1,200 people dead and more than 200 kidnapped.
Jewish students and faculty members at those schools claimed that the protests often devolved into hateful, anti-Semitic rhetoric and even violence, making them feel unwelcome and unsafe.
To get through required making a statement pledging allegiance to anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian views and having someone within the encampment “vouch” for the individual’s fidelity to the pro-Palestine cause, according to the complaint.
Those practices meant the protestors were able to “deny the overwhelming majority of Jews access to the heart of the campus,” the complaint said.
“With the knowledge and acquiescence of UCLA officials, the activists enforced what was effectively a ‘Jew Exclusion Zone,’ segregating Jewish students and preventing them from accessing the heart of campus, including classroom buildings and the main undergraduate library,” the complaint alleges.
The Jewish students asked the court for an injunction that would ensure equal access during the fall semester.
‘Meet and Confer’
At the July 29 hearing, U.S. Judge Mark Scarsi of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California stopped short of granting the injunction, but he ordered the suing students and the university to come back in a week with a court-enforceable plan he might approve in time for the start of fall classes.“Meet and confer to see if you can come up with some agreeable stipulated injunction or some other court order that would give both UCLA the flexibility it needs ... but also provide Jewish students on campus some reassurance that their free exercise rights are not going to play second fiddle to anything else,” said Judge Scarsi, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Following the hearing, a UCLA spokesperson said in a statement that the school is “committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive campus, holding those who engaged in violence accountable, and combatting antisemitism in all forms.”
“We have applied lessons learned from this spring’s protests and continue to work to foster a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination and harassment,” the spokesperson said.
Attorneys for UCLA have argued that the university is not liable for the protesters’ conduct and that campus security did not discriminate against Jewish students. The university also highlighted its effort to keep the encampment from growing and its de-escalation strategy.
Violence erupted on April 30 when more than 100 pro-Israel counter-protesters clashed with the encampment’s participants. Law enforcement arrived to restore order only after several hours of scuffles. Police tore down the camps the following night, arresting more than 200 pro-Palestinian protesters who refused to leave.
In the meantime, University of California President Michael Drake is working with the university’s leaders to create a systemwide plan on how to enforce rules during campus protests. Mr. Drake must submit the plan to the California Legislature by Oct. 1.
Until then, the state legislature is withholding from the university $25 million in state funding.
