UCLA has agreed to pay $6.45 million to resolve the lawsuit brought by three Jewish students and the university violated civil rights and allowed anti-Semitic behavior amid a violent attack in the spring of 2024.
Each plaintiff receives $50,000. Approximately $2.3 million will be donated to eight groups working with the Jewish community and issues. Another $320,000 will be directed towards the UCLA initiative and the remaining funds will be directed towards legal costs as they fight anti-Semitism.
As part of the agreement, UCLA agrees that it is “prohibited from knowingly allowing or promoting the exclusion of Jewish students, faculty, and/or staff from UCLA’s programs, activities, and/or normally available portions of campus areas. This provision extends to any action taken on campus, including, for example, to remove measures to eliminate tensions during the protest, and includes “exclusion…” “based on religious beliefs about the Israeli Jewish state.”
The agreement has been in effect for 15 years and is awaiting approval from US district judge Mark C. Scarci, who oversees the case.
The organizations receiving the funds are UCLA’s Hillel, the Academic Engagement Network, the Prevention Prevention League, the Jewish Federation’s Los Angeles Campus Impact Network, UCLA’s Chabad, the Jewish Graduate Organization, Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative, the Jewish Learning Initiative on campus, and films for use in the production of a film called “list holocaust.”
The lawsuit comes from a multi-day pro-Palestinian camp built by protesters in the UCLA Quad in front of Lois Hall in late April 2024. Pro-Palestine activists had demanded that the university be sold from a company that had ties to the Israeli war in Gaza. The camp became a global news story after a bout of a brawl instigated by pro-Israel rebels.
The failure of UCLA and law enforcement to stop the violence promptly sparked intense criticism. Those involved threw objects, sprayed stimulants, and threw fireworks – an attack that lasted for hours before officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol quelled the violence.
Calling UCLA a “anti-Semitic breeding ground” with a “ramp-prolonged anti-Semitic environment,” students sued the UC Regent and several school staff in June 2024, claiming that the camp had blocked access to parts of the campus and violated civil rights. The professor later joined the lawsuit.
Among the six private defendants in the case is former UCLA Prime Minister Gene D. Block, who resigned at the end of July 2024. Michael V. Drake, president of the University of California.
The lawsuit allegedly provided support to Palestinian activists who “forced” what they called the “Jewish exclusion zone,” separating Jewish students and preventing them from accessing the “center of the campus,” including the auditorium. He also alleged that the university’s “cologic abdication of UCLA’s obligation to ensure free access to educational opportunities” violated students’ freedom of speech and other rights.
The UCLA prospects for the lawsuit filed the lawsuit about a year ago, with federal judges overseeing the case and admonishing how campus leaders handled the campus. Scarsi ordered the university to ensure equal access to Jewish students.
“In 2024, Jewish students were excluded from part of the UCLA campus in California, California, and Los Angeles.
UCLA faced stronger headwinds after the presidential election.
In March, the U.S. Department of Justice filed court documents to assist students, claiming that UCLA attempted to “avert liability” for what happened on campus. The department’s “statement of interest” filed a statement said the plaintiffs were “excluded from part of the UCLA campus because they refused to condemn their faith,” calling this “hate the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.”
In the court’s application, UCLA lawyers said campus leaders were not responsible for the actions of protesters, and UCLA officials focused on emissions and safety during the camp.
The Palestinian group also submitted a brief on the case, claiming that the camp was anti-Zionist rather than anti-Semitic, pointing out that the majority of its members were Jews. They also argued that limiting campus lessons on Palestinians led to the reduction of UCLA’s actions in response to the lawsuit being reduced academically.
The road ahead
After the unrest of the spring 2024, UCLA and the University of California enacted some major security-related changes and how the protests will be handled in the future.
Now, protesters are unable to block passes or wear masks to hide their identity while breaking campus rules. Additionally, demonstration areas are limited. UCLA also hired LAPD veteran Steve Lurie to lead the new office in safety on campus.
Lurie announced Monday that LAPD veteran Craig Valenzuela would be effective September 1st, UCLA police chief. Valenzuela, a UCLA alumnus who joined the city’s police force in 1996, announced that from May 2024 he would take over a division that had no permanent chieftain when then-police officer John Thomas was appointed before he was appointed to Fall. Thomas faced false police liability for violence in the camp.
Although UCLA has increased protest restrictions, added security officers and quickly closed several pro-Palestinian events since spring 2024, many on campus say demonstration policies are being enforced unevenly or sporadically. Concerns have been repeatedly expressed at UC and Campus Forums by the Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestinian Campus groups.
There was another major change on campus. Julio Frenk, whose German Jewish father fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s – became prime minister on January 1st. Three months later, Frenck banned Palestinian students as a campus organization after protests in front of California regents. Frenk also launched a campus-wide initiative to combat anti-Semitism.
Times staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.
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