On July 29, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) announced it had agreed to pay $6.45 million to settle complaints over antisemitic discrimination during on-campus pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year.
As part of the settlement, UCLA will contribute a total of $2.33 million to eight organizations that combat antisemitism and support the UCLA Jewish community, including Hillel at UCLA, Jewish Federation Los Angeles – Campus Impact Network, and Chabad of UCLA; $320,000 to UCLA’s Initiative to Combat Antisemitism; $50,000 payments to each of the four plaintiffs; and $3.6 million for attorneys’ fees and costs. Additionally, UCLA agreed to a permanent court order to prohibit knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students from on-campus areas, programs, and activities.
“We welcome the settlement reached today between the University of California and Jewish students at UCLA,” said Jewish Federation Los Angeles in a statement. “Accountability is a vital step to ensuring that the mistakes made by the university, leaving Jewish students vulnerable and endangered, should not happen again.”
Hillel at UCLA Executive Director Daniel Gold stated the settlement is “an important and meaningful step forward in addressing the very serious challenges that Jewish students have faced at UCLA.”
Similarly, in a joint statement, the affected parties stated they were “pleased with the terms of today’s settlement.”
The agreement builds on several actions the University of California says it has taken to combat antisemitism on campus following the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, such as opposing divestment from Israel, reaffirming system policies against intolerance, and publishing a systemwide Anti-Discrimination Policy.
“Today’s settlement reflects a critically important goal that we share with the plaintiffs: to foster a safe, secure and inclusive environment for all members of our community and ensure that there is no room for antisemitism anywhere on campus,” said University of California Board of Regents Chair Janet Reilly.
Jordan Varberg, an attorney at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the law firm that represented the plaintiffs, said he believes the agreement is “the largest private settlement in a campus antisemitism case since the uprise in antisemitism in 2023.”
Last year, college students across the nation, including from UCLA, Columbia University, and Harvard University, constructed pro-Palestinian encampments in response to their respective university’s ties to Israel in its ongoing war in Gaza.
On June 3, 2024, Jewish students at UCLA filed a federal lawsuit, Frankel v. Regents of the University of California, against the university for “allowing the antisemitic encampments and facilitating antisemitism on campus,” according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
In the weeklong demonstration that started on April 5, 2024, and continued until May 2, 2024, UCLA allowed for student activists to set up barricades and establish an encampment that blocked access to the central parts of campus, the suit states. The plaintiffs alleged that pro-Palestinian activists enforced a “Jew Exclusion Zone,” which segregated Zionist and/or Jewish students and faculty from going to classes and participating in routine campus life.
“The University of California, Los Angeles, once considered among the most prestigious public institutions in the world, has deteriorated into a hotbed of antisemitism,” the lawsuit reads.
The plaintiffs brought claims under the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise Clause, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. They alleged activists chanted antisemitic threats, creating a pervasive air of fear for Jewish students, and that the university was aware of the encampments yet did not act to remove them, thus discriminating against students based on their religion.
UCLA denied liability and wrongdoing alleged in the action and agreed to pay the settlement to avoid further inconvenience, expense and litigation, but Reilly recognized where the University of California had “fallen short.”
In a separate action, on the same day UCLA announced the settlement, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged the university violated federal civil rights law, which could result in a loss of federal funding.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated the DOJ has “found concerning evidence of systemic antisemitism at UCLA that demands severe accountability from the institution,” and that UCLA will be forced to pay a “heavy price” for putting Jewish Americans at risk, but has not specified what that price will be.
The settlement and findings by the DOJ represent a growing number of higher education institutions facing scrutiny, investigation and federal funding threats in response to on-campus tension surrounding Israel and Palestine.
