Attorneys claim that the University of California tolerated discrimination against Jewish students and staff to an unacceptable and unlawful extent.
A group of Jewish students has filed a lawsuit against University of California officials, claiming that the school’s leadership failed to control a wave of disruptive pro-Palestine protests on the school’s Los Angeles campus.
According to CBS News, the 74-page complaint was filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. It alleges that, between April and May, the presence of a large pro-Palestine encampment prevented Jewish students and faculty from going to class, administrative offices, and the library—and, in some cases, subjected them to inherently antisemitic chants.
CBS News notes that the three plaintiffs are being represented by lawyers from Becket, a non-profit organization that litigates religious rights-related claims, and the law firm of Clement & Murphy, PLLC.
Mark Rienzi, the president of Becket, said that the University of California at Los Angeles tolerated discrimination against its Jewish students to an unusual and allegedly unlawful extent.
“If masked agitators had excluded any other marginalized group at UCLA, [California] Governor Newsom rightly would have sent in the National Guard immediately,” Rienzi said in a statement published to Becket’s website.
Rienzi also suggested that, when the university caved into pressure from pro-Palestine demonstrators, it “allowed its Jewish students to be segregated from the heart of their own campus.”
The lawsuit claims that, during the height of the protests, activists erected and manned barriers.
Students attempting to transit the area were allegedly prevented from pass through unless they either swore allegiance to the Palestinian cause or received verbal confirmation from one of the other protesters.
In many cases, students were also prompted to “disavow” any connection to, or affinity for, the Israeli state.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs have since characterized the encampment as a “Jew Exclusion Zone.”
“This is America in 2024—not Germany in 1939,” Rienzi said. “UCLA’s administration should have to answer for allowing the Jew Exclusion Zone, and promise that Jews will never again be segregated on campus.”
Although the university did hire security guards to patrol and monitor the encampment, the guards purportedly discouraged Jewish students from entering the area.
“The security officers, acting as agents of the Defendants, informed Jewish persons that, if they wished to access the encampment or other restricted areas, they would first need to obtain the permission of the encampment members,” the lawsuit alleges.
The students are seeking a jury trial and “compensatory, punitive, and nominal damages for the loss of their rights under federal [and] state law.”
A group of Jewish students has filed a lawsuit against University of California officials, claiming that the school’s leadership failed to control a wave of disruptive pro-Palestine protests on the school’s Los Angeles campus.
According to CBS News, the 74-page complaint was filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. It alleges that, between April and May, the presence of a large pro-Palestine encampment prevented Jewish students and faculty from going to class, administrative offices, and the library—and, in some cases, subjected them to inherently antisemitic chants.
CBS News notes that the three plaintiffs are being represented by lawyers from Becket, a non-profit organization that litigates religious rights-related claims, and the law firm of Clement & Murphy, PLLC.
Mark Rienzi, the president of Becket, said that the University of California at Los Angeles tolerated discrimination against its Jewish students to an unusual and allegedly unlawful extent.
“If masked agitators had excluded any other marginalized group at UCLA, [California] Governor Newsom rightly would have sent in the National Guard immediately,” Rienzi said in a statement published to Becket’s website.
Rienzi also suggested that, when the university caved into pressure from pro-Palestine demonstrators, it “allowed its Jewish students to be segregated from the heart of their own campus.”
The lawsuit claims that, during the height of the protests, activists erected and manned barriers.
Students attempting to transit the area were allegedly prevented from pass through unless they either swore allegiance to the Palestinian cause or received verbal confirmation from one of the other protesters.
In many cases, students were also prompted to “disavow” any connection to, or affinity for, the Israeli state.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs have since characterized the encampment as a “Jew Exclusion Zone.”
“This is America in 2024—not Germany in 1939,” Rienzi said. “UCLA’s administration should have to answer for allowing the Jew Exclusion Zone, and promise that Jews will never again be segregated on campus.”
Although the university did hire security guards to patrol and monitor the encampment, the guards purportedly discouraged Jewish students from entering the area.
“The security officers, acting as agents of the Defendants, informed Jewish persons that, if they wished to access the encampment or other restricted areas, they would first need to obtain the permission of the encampment members,” the lawsuit alleges.
The students are seeking a jury trial and “compensatory, punitive, and nominal damages for the loss of their rights under federal [and] state law.”
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