The Trump administration sued the University of California (UC) on Tuesday, accusing it of turning a “blind eye” to antisemitism on its Los Angeles campus during student protests against Israel.
The lawsuit comes more than six months after US President Donald Trump demanded a massive $1 billion fine from the prestigious UC system over claims of antisemitism.
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department in a federal court in California, demands unspecified damages to be awarded to Jewish and Israeli employees of the university and alleges they were subjected to a hostile work environment.
Trump officials previously determined that UCLA failed to protect Jewish students, and last year UCLA reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued the university. The new lawsuit alleges the harm to Jewish and Israeli employees “goes much deeper” than the situations that settlement addressed.
“Following the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to — and at times facilitated — grossly antisemitic acts and systematically ignored cries for help from its own terrified Jewish and Israeli employees,” the complaint said.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi said UCLA administrators “allegedly allowed virulent antisemitism to flourish on campus, harming students and staff alike.
“Today’s lawsuit underscores that this Department of Justice stands strong against hate and antisemitism in all its vile forms,” Bondi said in a statement.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather on the UCLA campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
In response, UCLA said Tuesday it has taken “concrete and significant steps” to strengthen campus security, enforce policies and combat antisemitism. It did not mention the federal government’s lawsuit.
“Antisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or elsewhere,” Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in the statement.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who sits on the UC board, accused Trump of “extortion” when he made his $1 billion demand from the university in August, accusing the Republican president of trying to stifle academic freedom.
Much of the federal complaint focuses on the 2024 protest encampment that federal officials say blocked Jewish employees and students from parts of campus and included antisemitic signs and chants. One night, counterprotesters attacked the encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours, injuring more than a dozen people, before police stepped in. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested.
The 81-page lawsuit alleges UCLA violated its own policies by tolerating the encampment and accuses the university of failing to discipline any students, faculty or staff over antisemitic behavior. It asks a a judge to force UCLA to enforce its own anti-discrimination policies.
The university has said it has taken numerous steps toward improving campus safety and inclusivity, including the creation of an Office of Campus and Community Safety and new policies to manage protests on campus. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, whose Jewish father and grandparents fled to Mexico to escape Nazi Germany and whose wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, launched an initiative to combat antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.
“We stand firmly by the decisive actions we have taken to combat antisemitism in all its forms, and we will vigorously defend our efforts and our unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive environment for all members of our community,” Osaka said in the university’s statement.
Counter-protesters clash with anti-Israel demonstrators at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), in Los Angeles on May 1, 2024. (ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP)
The Trump administration has primarily focused on elite private universities in its campaign to win obedience from campuses it accuses of liberal and antisemitic bias. UCLA is one of the few public universities targeted in that effort, with the first being Columbia University, which the US president accused of failing to tackle antisemitism on campus in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests.
It was stripped of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding and lost its ability to apply for new research grants.
Columbia eventually agreed to pay the government $200 million, and an additional $21 million to settle an investigation into antisemitism on campus.
Trump has demanded that Harvard pay $1 billion in damages for allegedly failing to sufficiently protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests.
The Justice Department also sued Harvard this month demanding its student admissions data.
In a 2023 ruling, the US Supreme Court barred consideration of race in college admissions and the Justice Department is investigating whether any US schools are discriminating against white applicants.
Trump has previously sought to cut more than $2.6 billion of federal funding to Harvard, and has moved to block entry of international students — a quarter of its student body.
Those moves have largely been temporarily blocked by the courts.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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