US UCLA must protect Jewish students’ access to campus, judge rules

The University of California Los Angeles cannot allow pro-Palestinian protesters to block Jewish students’ access to campus buildings, classes and services, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi’s order appears to be the first ruling against a U.S. university linked to demonstrations protesting the Israel-Gaza conflict that erupted on hundreds of college campuses earlier this year.

The decision to issue an injunction against the prestigious university, issued on Tuesday, came as part of a lawsuit filed in June by three Jewish students, who said pro-Palestinian protesters blocked them from campus on the basis of their faith.

“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 parts of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” Scarsi wrote, calling it a “unimaginable” and “abominable”.

He has banned the school from offering any programs, activities or access to campus buildings if it knows any of them are not available to Jewish students.

In court documents, the school argued that it could not be held legally responsible for alleged discrimination perpetrated by third parties. The university also said it worked with authorities to dismantle encampments and took steps to improve its response to protests in the future, including creating a new campus security office and blocking at least three new efforts to occupy parts of campus. .

The school’s vice provost for strategic communications, Mary Osako, said in a statement that UCLA was considering “all of our options” in response to the decision.

“UCLA is committed to promoting a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from bullying, discrimination and harassment,” she said. “The district court’s decision would unduly harm our ability to respond to events on the ground and meet the needs of the Bruin community.”

One of the students who filed the lawsuit, law student Yitzchok Frankel, said in a statement: “No student should have to fear being locked out of their campus because they are Jewish.”

UCLA gained national attention when masked assailants attacked a pro-Palestinian camp on April 30 with batons and poles, triggering a brawl that saw both sides trading blows and pepper spray.

The following night, police forcibly dismantled the camp and arrested more than 200 people.

Activists criticized the police for responding too slowly to the attack and for acting too aggressively to take down the camp a day later. The head of the campus police department has been reassigned pending an external review.

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