Judge Instructs UCLA and Jewish Student Groups to Create Plan for Equal Campus Access After Pro-Palestine Demonstrations
OAN Staff Blake Wolf
1:23 PM – Tuesday, July 30, 2024
A federal judge issued a directive on Monday calling on UCLA and Jewish students to devise a plan protecting the rights of Jewish students. The call for UCLA to step up follows months after the pro-Palestinian protests erupted on campus in April which ended in hundreds of arrests.
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A lawsuit filed in June by three Jewish students against UCLA claim that the pro-Palestinian encampment violated their civil rights. The students allege that Jewish students were blocked from certain parts of campus, including the campsite itself, the Royce Quad.
“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,” U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi said.
Within the lawsuit, the students argue that UCLA helped facilitate a “Jew Exclusion Zone” with makeshift barriers around the encampment and hiring private security to keep Jewish students out of the encampment area.
UCLA lawyers dispute the claim, stating that student protestors, rather than the university itself, prevented access.
UCLA is “committed to maintaining a safe and inclusive campus, holding those who engaged in violence accountable, and combating antisemitism in all forms,” said spokesperson Mary Osako. 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.”
The UCLA encampments erected by pro-Palestinian student activists lasted for a week resulting in violent clashes with counter-protesters and hundreds of arrests.
“Moving forward, in close partnership with UC chancellors, President Drake is focused on learning from what transpired over the last few months and ensuring that we have more consistency across the system in how key policies are implemented and enforced,” the UC president’s office stated.
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