BUZZ
‘The settlement is believed to be the largest private settlement in campus antisemitism cases,’ attorneys say
The University of California system agreed Tuesday to a $6.13 million settlement to end a lawsuit filed by Jewish students who were blocked from accessing parts of the UCLA campus during raucous anti-Israel protests in recent years.
“This agreement builds on substantive action taken by the University of California and UCLA to promote safety and combat antisemitism on campus,” system leaders stated in a July 29 news release.
As part of the settlement, the system will contribute $2.33 million to eight organizations that combat antisemitism and support the UCLA Jewish community, including Hillel at UCLA, the Anti-Defamation League, Chabad of UCLA, and the Jewish Federation Los Angeles’s Campus Impact Network, the release stated.
The lawsuit had been filed in June 2024 by three Jewish UCLA students and a Jewish UCLA professor, arguing pro-Palestinian activists had established encampments over the spring where they enforced a “Jew Exclusion Zone,” preventing Jewish students from going to classes and accessing the library, stated the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented the plaintiffs.
“Meanwhile, UCLA’s administration ordered police to stand down and step aside,” the students’ attorneys had argued, adding “UCLA helped the agitators by providing metal barriers, stationing security to shoo Jews away, and catering to the wishes of the agitators instead of ensuring safe passage for Jews on campus.”
In April 2024, as The College Fix reported at the time, Jewish students were blocked from certain parts of campus, a Jewish professor was assaulted, and pro-Israel demonstrators were pepper-sprayed. At another controversial protest, a security officer was injured after being hit multiple times on the forehead with a cellphone by a protester.
The settlement comes nearly a year after U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering UCLA to protect Jewish students returning to campus for the 2024-25 school year, arguing in his decision: “In the year 2024, … Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating.”
According to the Becket Fund, the settlement “requires UCLA to pay $6.13 million, including damages to each of Becket’s clients, millions in charitable contributions to organizations that support the Jewish community, and attorneys’ fees and costs.”
“The agreed judgment appropriately recognizes that it is discriminatory—and antisemitic—to prevent Jews from accessing public spaces because of their religious beliefs about Israel. The settlement is believed to be the largest private settlement in campus antisemitism cases.”
UCLA, in a fact sheet released Tuesday on the matter, stated it has “taken several important and proactive steps to combat antisemitism” since the lawsuit was filed, including banning campus encampments, unauthorized structures, restrictions on free movement and identity concealment.
Outgoing UC President Michael Drake in June of this year also reiterated in a letter to chancellors that UC entities are banned from boycotting any country, including Israel.
MORE: UCLA becomes hotbed of anti-Israel hate
MORE: UCLA must make ‘fundamental’ changes after ‘chaotic’ handling of anti-Israel protests: watchdog
IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Anti-Israel students protest at UCLA in 2024 / Ringo Chua, Shutterstock
