Three Jewish students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the UC president and university leadership over a controversial pro-Palestinian camp that appeared on the school’s campus in April and May.
The 74-page complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that the camp disrupted Jewish students and faculty access to classes, offices and libraries, and chanted anti-Semitic slurs.
Becket, a nonprofit organization that specializes in religious rights, and the law firm Clement & Murphy PLLC filed the lawsuit on behalf of two law students and one undergraduate student.
“If masked agitators had been excluding other marginalized groups at UCLA, Governor Newsom would certainly have deployed the National Guard immediately,” said Mark Rienzi, president of the nonprofit group.
Rienzi argued that UCLA gave in to the protesters and “allowed Jewish students to be isolated from the heart of campus.”
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that the activists set up barricades and physically prevented the students from passing unless they made statements pledging allegiance to the activists’ views, received “guarantees” from camp members, and repudiated Israel.
Police officers and students clear the campus lawn as they protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California, USA, May 2, 2024. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The complaint says protesters handed out wristbands and “other forms of identification” to those who passed the tests.
The students’ lawyers called the area a “Jewish no-go zone.”
“This is America in 2024, not Germany in 1939,” Rienzi said. “UCLA administrators should be held accountable for allowing the creation of Jewish-free zones and promise that Jews will never again be segregated on campus.”
In the lawsuit, the students also allege that security guards hired to provide extra security outside the campsite prevented Jewish students from crossing the area.
“Security officers acting on behalf of the defendants informed Jews that if they wished to enter the encampment or other restricted areas, they must first obtain permission from encampment members,” the lawyers said in the lawsuit.
The students are seeking “compensatory, punitive and nominal damages for the loss of their federal and state law rights,” as well as attorneys’ fees and other costs.
UCLA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Matthew Rodriguez