UCLA violated Jewish students’ civil rights with ‘deliberate indifference,’ feds say
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- The Department of Justice finds UCLA violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students during a spring 2024 pro-Palestinian campus encampment.
- In a separate action, UCLA will pay $6.45 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from pro-Palestinian protests in spring 2024.
The Department of Justice said Tuesday that UCLA violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students who reported harassment and intimidation during a spring 2024 pro-Palestinian campus encampment, heightening the political tensions between the University of California and the Trump administration.
In a letter addressed to UC President Michael V. Drake, DOJ officials said, “Jewish and Israeli students at UCLA were subjected to severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment that created a hostile environment by members of the encampment.”
The letter faulted UCLA for not taking down the encampment until after it was attacked by a pro-Israel group. In addition, the department found UCLA was “inadequate” in its response to complaints from Jewish and Israeli students last spring, violating the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI.
A DOJ statement that said UCLA acted with “deliberate indifference” toward Jewish students and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said the Trump administration will make UCLA pay a “heavy price.”
“This disgusting breach of civil rights against students will not stand: DOJ will force UCLA to pay a heavy price for putting Jewish Americans at risk and continue our ongoing investigations into other campuses in the UC system,” Bondi said.
The DOJ letter, signed by U.S. Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon and Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Gregory W. Brown, gave UCLA a deadline of Aug. 5 to enter into a voluntary settlement to “ensure that the hostile environment is eliminated and reasonable steps are taken to prevent its recurrence.”
If UCLA refuses, the officials said, the Trump administration would file a federal lawsuit by Sept. 2.
University of California and UCLA representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The notice is the first major conclusion among an array of Trump administration investigations probing UC campuses over alleged antisemitism, the use of race in admissions and hiring and promotion practices involving faculty diversity.
The DOJ said the findings were part of a UC-wide investigation launched May 9. Although the UCLA investigation has concluded, other campus probes continue, the DOJ said.
The notice to UCLA comes on the heels of a major Trump administration settlement with Columbia University, which will pay $221 million to restore federal funds that were clawed back amid investigations of campus responses to alleged antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests.
UCLA settles lawsuit over encampment
The DOJ announcement about UCLA came hours after the university said it would pay $6.45 million to settle a federal lawsuit brought by three Jewish students and a medical school professor who alleged the university violated their civil rights and enabled antisemitism during the pro-Palestinian encampment.
The DOJ letter cited that lawsuit’s filings as part of its investigations, though it did not mention the settlement.
It also said it looked into documentation UCLA shared about its anti-discrimination policies and practices as well as complaints about discrimination related to religion, national origin, race, shared ancestry, and color on campus since Oct. 7, 2023. That day is when Hamas attacked Israel, leading to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, and spurring protests across U.S. colleges.
Specifically, the letter pointed to 11 complaints from Jewish or Israeli students regarding discrimination between April 25 and May 1, 2024, while the encampment was up.
The lawsuit, filed more than a year ago, alleged that by not immediately ordering the encampment to be taken down, UCLA provided support to pro-Palestinian activists who “enforced” what it termed a “Jew Exclusion Zone,” prohibiting Jewish students and staff from passing through the camp’s makeshift barricades.
Each plaintiff will receive $50,000. About $2.3 million will be donated to eight groups that work with Jewish communities. Another $320,000 will be directed to a UCLA initiative to combat antisemitism, and the rest of the funds will go toward legal fees.
As part the deal, UCLA has also agreed that it is “prohibited from knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students, faculty, and/or staff from ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and/or campus areas.” The provision extends to any actions taken on campus, including measures to de-escalate tensions during a protest, for instance, and includes “exclusion ... based on religious beliefs concerning the Jewish state of Israel.”
The settlement is believed to be the largest payout by private, individual plaintiffs to date from a flurry of lawsuits filed against universities alleging cases of antisemitism.
That agreement, which would be in effect for 15 years, is awaiting approval from U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi, who is overseeing the case.
The organizations to receive the money are Hillel at UCLA, Academic Engagement Network, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation Los Angeles Campus Impact Network, Chabad of UCLA, Jewish Graduate Organization, the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, and the Film Collaborative, Inc. for use toward producing the Holocaust-related film “Lost Alone.”
In a joint statement, both parties said the settlement was a sign of “real progress in the fight against antisemitism.”
Mark Rienzi, a lawyer who represented the students and professor, had sharp words for campus leaders.
“Campus administrators across the country willingly bent the knee to antisemites during the encampments,” said Rienzi, president of Becket, a nonprofit firm that takes on religious liberty cases. “They are now on notice: Treating Jews like second-class citizens is wrong, illegal, and very costly. UCLA should be commended for accepting judgment against that misbehavior and setting the precedent that allowing mistreatment of Jews violates the Constitution and civil rights laws.”
UC regents chair Janet Reilly said that the agreement “reflects a critically important goal that we share with the plaintiffs: to foster a safe, secure and inclusive environment for all members of our community and ensure that there is no room for antisemitism anywhere on campus.”
“Antisemitism, harassment, and other forms of intimidation are antithetical to our values and have no place at the University of California,” Reilly said. “We have been clear about where we have fallen short, and we are committed to doing better moving forward.”
Thomas B. Harvey, a Los Angeles civil rights attorney who had filed a motion before the settlement took place on behalf of student and faculty pro-Palestinian activists to join the lawsuit, said he was disappointed with the result.
“The allegation that members of the Palestine Solidarity Encampment excluded Jewish people because of their religion is outrageous,” said Harvey. “UCLA laid down and refused to fight the case. The court conflates antisemitism and anti-Zionism, threatening their exercise of religion and free speech.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years, but recent developments have “dramatically worsened” the situation, including “increasingly stringent blockades” by Israel.
The 2024 encampment
The student lawsuit stems from the days-long pro-Palestinian encampment that protesters erected on the UCLA quad in front of Royce Hall in late April 2024. Pro-Palestinian activists were demanding the university divest from companies with ties to Israel’s war in Gaza. The encampment became a global news story after a melee instigated by pro-Israel counter-demonstrators erupted.
UCLA and law enforcement’s failure to quickly stop the violence sparked intense criticism. The people involved hurled objects, sprayed irritants and tossed fireworks — attacks that continued for hours until officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and the California Highway Patrol quelled the violence.
Before the violence, some Jewish students voiced dismay over “checkpoints,” to entry, saying they were excluded from passing through the encampment because they supported the existence of Israel. At the time, some students defended restricting access to the encampment, telling The Times it was needed to keep “agitators” from entering and endangering protesters.
Calling UCLA a “hotbed of antisemitism” with a “rampant anti-Jewish environment,” Jewish students sued the UC regents and several school officials in June 2024, alleging that the encampment blocked their access to part of campus, violating their civil rights. The professor later joined the suit.
The suit also alleged that the university’s “cowardly abdication of its duty to ensure unfettered access to UCLA’s educational opportunities” violated the students’ freedom of speech and other rights.
The plaintiffs blamed UCLA because university security workers re-enforced the encampment with bike racks and school leaders initially did not order it to be cleared. UCLA said at the time it’s actions were aimed at de-escalation and safety.
Among the six individual defendants in the case are former UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block, who stepped down at the end of July 2024; and Michael V. Drake, president of the University of California.
The plaintiffs included recent UCLA law graduates Yitzchok Frankel and Eden Shemuelian and undergraduate Joshua Ghayoum.
“When antisemites were terrorizing Jews and excluding them from campus, UCLA chose to protect the thugs and help keep Jews out,” said Frankel. “That was shameful, and it is sad that my own school defended those actions for more than a year. But today’s court judgment brings justice back to our campus and ensures Jews will be safe and be treated equally once again.”
After Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, campuses were roiled by pro-Palestinian protests, which left Jewish students feeling unsafe. How are those at UCLA and USC faring amid President Trump’s aggressive antisemitism campaign.
UCLA’s outlook over the suit dimmed a year ago, when the federal judge overseeing the case admonished campus leaders for how they handled the encampment. Scarsi ordered the university to ensure equal access to Jewish students.
“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” Scarsi wrote in the order last July.
Pro-Palestinian groups also filed briefs in the case, arguing that the encampment was not antisemitic but anti-Zionist and pointing out that a large segment of its members were Jewish. They also alleged that UCLA’s actions in response to the case ended up cutting into academic freedom by limiting campus lessons about Palestinians.
New protest rules and restrictions
After the unrest of spring 2024, UCLA and the University of California enacted several major changes related to security and how protests would be handled going forward.
Now, protesters cannot block paths or wear masks if it’s to conceal their identity while breaking campus rules, and demonstration areas are restricted, among other changes. UCLA also hired LAPD veteran Steve Lurie to lead the new Office of Campus Safety.
The Justice Department filed documents supporting the right of students and faculty to sue and accusing UCLA of trying to ‘evade responsibility’ for alleged antisemitism.
On Monday, Lurie announced that LAPD veteran Craig Valenzuela would be UCLA’s police chief, effective Sept. 1. Valenzuela, a UCLA alumnus who joined the city’s police force in 1996, will take over a department that has not had a permanent chief since May 2024, when then-UCLA Police Chief John Thomas was reassigned before resigning in the fall. Thomas faced blame for the police mishandling of violence at the encampment.
Although UCLA has increased protest restrictions, added security officers and quickly shut down some pro-Palestinian events since spring 2024, many on campus have said that demonstration policies are unevenly or sporadically enforced. The concern has been repeatedly voiced at UC and campus forums by pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian campus groups.
There was another major change on campus: Julio Frenk — whose German Jewish father fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s — becoming chancellor on Jan. 1. Three months later, Frenk banned Students for Justice in Palestine as a campus organization after a protest the group held in front of a UC regent’s house that was vandalized. Frenk also launched a campuswide initiative to combat antisemitism.
What comes next
Tuesday’s lawsuit settlement may not be the end of the case.
Scarsi, in a court order upon learning of the settlement, said there would be a 45-day period when he could reopen the case if there is a “showing of good cause why the settlement cannot be completed.”
Pro-Palestinian individuals who were part of the encampment asked the judge in a court filing Tuesday to allow them to join as a party to the case.
Their argument: The settlement is inappropriate and will harm students and faculty.
UCLA “never challenged the wholly unsupported, false, and ridiculous allegations that the Palestine Solidarity Encampment, which, in fact, included Jewish faculty, students, and community members who held Shabbat and Seder services, was a so-called ‘Jew exclusion zone,’ ” the encampment participants wrote in a court filing. UCLA’s “core claim is false, and the relief sought from it is intended to violate student, faculty, and campus community rights, rather than to protect the rights to free expression on campus.”
Times staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.
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