Federal judge orders UCLA to protect its Jewish students

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It’s hard to believe that an American university now has to be told that it’s illegal to block Jews from walking across campus unless they denounce their faith.

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A U.S. District Court judge has issued an injunction against the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) after its administrators repeatedly permitted pro-Palestine protesters to hold disruptive demonstrations and set up no-go zones for Jews unless they disavowed any support for Israel and wore a bracelet.

On April 25, 2024, pro-Palestine protesters blockaded Royce Quad, a major campus thoroughfare that borders several important buildings, including Powell Library and Royce Hall. The encampment was set up with plywood and metal barriers, and protesters created checkpoints people had to go through if they wanted to reach their destination.

The protesters would ask every person attempting to pass through if they supported Israel To obtain a wristband and “permission” to pass, people had to answer that they did not support Israel.

The protesters also blocked entrances to classrooms.

Three Jewish students, following their religious beliefs, refused to disavow Israel and were unable to enter the encampment.

UCLA had the encampment dismantled on May 2, yet on several occasions after that, it still allowed protesters to blockade areas and set up more encampments. On June 10, protestors again set up encampments, this time blocking the general public and disrupting final exams. Some students were denied entrance to their classrooms and were unable to take their finals while others were “evacuated in the middle of finals.”

The three Jewish students filed a lawsuit against UCLA, saying that the university had violated their right to the free exercise of religion.

Last week U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi granted the students a preliminary injunction. Scarsi opened his ruling by writing:

“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 claims it is not required to protect the students’ religious liberty because the encampments were set up by protesters and not the university.

Scarsi said that while UCLA may not have been the cause of the students being denied access, it bears responsibility because it allowed other students to have access while knowing that some students were not granted that same privilege.

“The injuries are not simply the exclusion of Plaintiffs from certain of UCLA’s ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas. The injuries result when Plaintiffs are excluded from certain of UCLA’s ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas and UCLA still provides those programs, activities, and campus areas to other students knowing that Plaintiffs and students like them are excluded based on their religious exercise” Scarsi reasoned.

He wrote that he would not prescribe any particular policies to the university through the injunction. Instead, the injunction requires “if any part of UCLA’s ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas become unavailable to certain Jewish students, UCLA must stop providing those ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas to any students. How best to make any unavailable programs, activities, and campus areas available again is left to UCLA’s discretion.”

The students were represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Mark Rienzi, president of Becket stated,

“Shame on UCLA for letting antisemitic thugs terrorize Jews on campus. Today’s ruling says that UCLA’s policy of helping antisemitic activists target Jews is not just morally wrong but a gross constitutional violation. UCLA should stop fighting the Constitution and start protecting Jews on campus.”

UCLA is expected to appeal the injunction to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

We often hear “pro-Palestine” rioters and apologists claim that their problem isn’t with Jews, only the political state of Israel. Yet we repeatedly see pro-Palestine advocates engage in blatant and truly disturbing instances of anti-Jewish language and violence — not just in Israel and the Middle East but in major American and European cities.

We even see American college students celebrating and justifying the rape and murder of Jewish women and children and hostage-taking that Hamas inflicted on October 7.

Not every person who supports Palestine or opposes Israel does so because they are anti-Semitic, but anti-Semitism is the catalyst for opposition to Israel.

Hamas, Iran, and other terror groups hate Jews; that is why they have been waging war on Israel for decades.

That is why no kindness Israel extends will ever be enough. The five proposals of a two-state solution offered by Israel over the years, all rejected by Palestinians, weren’t enough. Withdrawing from Gaza and the West Bank wasn’t enough.

Even if Israel were to give into the global pressure by ending their current military efforts and abandoning the hostages held by Hamas, it wouldn’t stop the hatred. Militants won’t be happy until Israel, and the Jewish people, cease to exist. That’s why Hamas leaders and protesters in the West continuously call for globalizing the intifada.

UCLA officials failed their students by allowing a group of rioters to control who could access public classrooms and parts of the campus based on a person’s heritage and beliefs.

It failed when it repeatedly allowed such actions to occur.

It has failed yet again by denying any responsibility, siding against Jewish students, and continuing to fight this lawsuit.

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