Judge tells UCLA it must protect Jewish students' equal access on campus

A federal judge directed the University of California-Los Angeles to devise a plan to protect Jewish students' equal access to campus facilities in case of disruptive events such as the protests against the Israel-Hamas war that erupted in the spring.

U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi gave UCLA and three Jewish students who sued the school a week to agree to a plan.

“Meet and confer to see if you can come up with some agreeable stipulated injunction or some other court order that would give both UCLA the flexibility it needs ... but also provide Jewish students on campus some reassurance that their free exercise rights are not going to play second fiddle to anything else,” Scarsi said Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The three Jewish students filed a lawsuit in June alleging their civil rights were violated when they were not allowed access to parts of campus, including the site of a pro-Palestinian encampment that was blocked off by barriers and guarded by private security.

UCLA lawyers responded that access was denied by the protesters, not the school or security agents, the Times reported.

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The encampment at UCLA was one of the largest and most contentious among the numerous protest sites that emerged in college campuses across the nation as thousands of students expressed their support for Palestinians in Gaza, where nearly 40,000 have been killed by Israeli forces during the war.

Late on the night of April 30, what UCLA officials later called a “group of instigators’’ – many of them wearing masks – attacked the encampment in an hours-long clash, wielding metal poles and shooting fireworks into the site as law enforcement agents declined to intervene for more than three hours. Dozens were injured in what was arguably the most violent incident among all the campus protests.

Some participants in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations expressed antisemitic views and support for Hamas, the militant group that incited the war with its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities, where about 1,200 were killed and another 250 taken hostage into Gaza.

The three plaintiffs suing UCLA said the school had sanctioned a “Jew Exclusion Zone,’’ which university lawyers denied, pointing to a crackdown on encampments that was also implemented by many other universities, often with police intervention.

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UCLA spokesperson Mary Osako issued a statement saying the university is “committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive campus, holding those who engaged in violence accountable, and combating antisemitism in all forms. We have applied lessons learned from this spring’s protests and continue to work to foster a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination and harassment.”