Federal court issues injunction against UCLA on discriminating against Jews - and makes clear that Zionism is part of Judaism ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Federal court issues injunction against UCLA on discriminating against Jews - and makes clear that Zionism is part of Judaism

A Los Angeles federal district court today ordered the University of California, Los Angeles, to stop allowing and assisting antisemitic agitators to ban Jews from large parts of UCLA’s campus.

In Frankel v. Regents of the University of California, Becket and co-counsel Clement & Murphy PLLC filed a lawsuit against UCLA after it helped a group of activists as they set up encampments where they harassed Jewish students and stopped them from accessing classes, the library, and other critical parts of campus. UCLA reinforced these zones—both by providing metal barriers and by sending away Jewish students—while taking no effective action to ensure safe passage for Jewish students. In response, UCLA disavowed any obligation to protect its Jewish students, and claimed that Jewish students have nothing to fear when classes begin again in the fall.

The ruling leaves no doubt as to the antisemitic nature of what UCLA allowed, and even helped, anti-Zionist groups to do. The ruling is a withering criticism of the school (emphasis in original):

In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. UCLA does not dispute this. Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.

The judge clearly sees attachment to Israel as being part snd parcel of Judaism, and forcing students to deny that connection as being antisemitic.

Note that "UCLA does not dispute this" - that the encampments excluded Jews because Zionism is part and parcel of their Judaism.

What the sydents went through was antisemitic. Students were asked "Are you a Zionist?" and physcially blocked from entering areas of campus if they didn't denounce Zionism, or if they wore any jewelry or signs of being Jewish.

The examples given in the ruling reinforce this (emphasis mine):

Plaintiffs are three Jewish students who assert they have a religious obligation to support the Jewish state of Israel. Prior to the protests, Plaintiff Frankel often made use of Royce Quad. After protesters erected the encampment, Plaintiff Frankel stopped using the Royce Quad because he believed that he could not traverse the encampment without disavowing Israel. He also saw protesters attempt to erect an encampment at the UCLA School of Law’s Shapiro courtyard on June 10, 2024. Similarly, Plaintiff Ghayoum was unable to access Powell Library because he understood that traversing the encampment, which blocked entrance to the library, carried a risk of violence. He also canceled plans to meet a friend at Ackerman Union after four protesters stopped him while he walked toward Janss Steps and repeatedly asked him if he had a wristband. Plaintiff Ghayoum also could not study at Powell Library because protesters from the encampment blocked his access to the library. And Plaintiff Shemuelian also decided not to traverse Royce Quad because of her knowledge that she would have to disavow her religious beliefs to do so. The encampment led UCLA to effectively make certain of its programs, activities, and campus areas available to other students when UCLA knew that some Jewish students, including Plaintiffs, were excluded based of their genuinely held religious beliefs.

The injunction prohibits UCLA from discriminating against Jewish students, and makes clear:

For purposes of this order, all references to the exclusion of Jewish students shall include exclusion of Jewish students based on religious beliefs concerning the Jewish state of Israel.

(h/t Andrew)

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