A federal judge has ordered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to develop a plan for maintaining equal campus access for Jewish students.
The order comes as pro-Palestine demonstrators blocked sections of the campus and set up ideological checkpoints.
The lawsuit, filed on June 5, detailed students’ experience with a “Jew Exclusion Zone.” UCLA’s administration told police to “stand down and step aside and even assigned security officers to keep those who would not agree to disavow Israel’s right to exist away from the area,” according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
Protesters “refused to let students through unless they disavowed Israel’s right to exist,” a case summary reads. “The activists used checkpoints, built barriers, and often locked arms to prevent Jews from walking through the encampment. They also created an identification system, giving wristbands to those who had passed their anti-Israel ideological test and preventing those without one from entering,” it adds.
One plaintiff in the case, Associate Clinical Professor Kamran Shamsa, said a “large, masked man approached me and aggressively pushed me to the ground” within “plain sight of at least a dozen UCLA security guards,” The Center Square reported. The security guards “did nothing to intervene,” Shamsa added.
President of Becket and an attorney for the Jewish students, Mark Reinzi, said in a statement, “It’s disgusting that a prestigious American university would aid and abet antisemitic agitators who harass and segregate Jewish students. UCLA’s behavior needs to change, and we look forward to working out an appropriate plan that protects Jewish students on campus.”
UCLA’s plan to protect Jewish students must be submitted to the court by August 5.
