The University of California, Los Angeles is being sued by three Jewish students for allowing “antisemitic activists” to enforce a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus. 

The suit, filed against UC Regents and University officials on Wednesday, alleges that the University violated the students’ civil rights by permitting the “segregation and exclusion” of Jewish students from areas in “the heart” of campus, including classrooms and the main undergraduate library. 

“The crux of the case,” the President of Becket, the law firm behind the suit, Mark Rienzi, tells the Sun, “is that UCLA knew about what was going on and allowed it to persist as long as it did.”

Mr. Rienzi says he believes that the administration “knew what was going on violated their rules.” And yet, “they just completely failed to do what they are legally required to do, which is to guarantee everyone equal opportunity and access on their campus.” 

According to the lawsuit, the antisemitic activists prevented those “who refused to disavow Israel” from accessing areas on campus by setting up barriers and locking their arms together. The description draws a striking parallel to the infamous photograph of Nazis blocking Jews from entering the University of Vienna in 1938.  

Anyone who wanted to pass the barrier had to verbally pledge “their allegiance” to the anti-Israel cause and procure an encampment member who could “vouch” for their loyalty. The students on guard would mark those who passed the test with wristbands or other forms of identification. 

The system led to the exclusion of “the overwhelming majority of Jews” from areas in the center of campus, the lawsuit notes. UCLA has a total of 3,000 Jewish undergraduate and graduate students who represent 10.9 percent of the total student population, according to data from the Anti-Defamation League.  

During this “Orwellian inquisition,” antisemitic chants of  “death to the Jews,” “free Palestine from the hand of Jews,” and “from the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” could be heard from inside the encampment. 

The suit includes photographs of antisemitic signs and vandalism seen at the encampments and across campus. One image shows a chalking on the campus sidewalk with the word “Nazionists” written above a star of David and a swastika. Another exhibits an “Intifada” sign plastered over the word “Royce” on a “Royce Hall” placard, so that the sign said “Intifada Hall.”

All the while, UCLA’s administration was fully aware of these exclusionary and antisemitic practices, the suit argues, citing Chancellor Gene Block’s public acknowledgement that “students on their way to class have been physically blocked from accessing parts of the campus.”

And yet, not only did the university fail to protect its Jewish students from the “Jew Exclusion Zone,” but the administration adopted a policy that served to “assist” the antisemitic activists’ actions, Mr. Rienzi says. 

As the demonstrators screened and shunned Jewish students, campus police were ordered to “stand down and step aside,” the suit alleges. The administration instead placed security staff alongside the perimeter of the encampment and other restricted areas.

“UCLA’s administration knew about the activists’ extreme actions, including the exclusion of Jews. But, in a remarkable display of cowardice, appeasement, and illegality, the administration did nothing to stop it,” the suit charges. 

If it was any other marginalized group being excluded from parts of campus, Mr. Rienzi says, “The administration would have immediately called the national guard. They wouldn’t even think about it.”

The lawsuit follows weeks of clashes surrounding the anti-Israel encampment on UCLA’s campus, including an incident in which a young Jewish girl was kicked in the head and knocked unconscious while peacefully counterprotesting. 

The violence came to a head when protesters refused to disband after UCLA declared the encampment illegal and pro-Israel counter-protesters attacked the camp overnight. The police began to dismantle the camp the following day.

Mr. Rienzi calls the campus violence “very sad,” and adds that “it got to that point because UCLA failed to enforce its own policies and failed to do what ought to be obvious.” 

The three plaintiffs at the center of the case — one undergraduate sophomore and two second-year law students — seek compensatory, punitive, and nominal damages for their loss of rights under federal and state law. 

The lawsuit charges the administration with violating the plaintiff’s rights according to the First and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, along with as several other lawful codes, and calls for an injunctive relief prohibiting the UCLA administration from continuing their unequal treatment of the plaintiffs. 

Mr. Rienzi says that “it’s really important” that the court rules in the plaintiff’s favor. “The University needs to be held accountable. They need to know that, next time, they can’t allow something like this to go on,” he adds. 

“So if another encampment goes up — and we have to assume that this kind of event will happen again — we need an order that tells UCLA that tolerating the exclusion of Jews from the center of campus is not an option,” he says. “There are laws. It’s illegal.”

The UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, Mary Osako, has issued a statement in response to the lawsuit’s filing, noting that the university will “review and respond” to the suit “in due course” and that “UCLA remains committed to supporting the safety and wellbeing of the entire Bruin community.”