A Win for Jews at UCLA

Order Jamie Glazov’s new book, ‘United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas’: HERE.

Judge Mark Scarsi of the United States District Court for the Central District of California has ruled that National Students for Justice in Palestine (“NSJP”) and the People’s City Council (PCC) have failed to make the case that their “encampment” at UCLA was protected by the First Amendment. The case of plaintiffs Matthew Weinberg, Nir Hoftman, Eli Tsives and Rabbi Dovid Gurevich may now proceed.

The ruling cites “numerous incidents of violence and exclusion directed at Jews, that the encampment and surrounding areas were covered with antisemitic images and slogans, that organizers targeted buildings named after Jews when they tried to establish a new encampment.” NSJP and PCC had organizers on the ground, raising allegations that PCC and NSJP “acted with a discriminatory animus toward Jews.”

As Evan Gahr of the California Globe notes, Nir Hoftman, a professor at UCLA medical school, was “even assaulted by members of the encampment.” National Students for Justice in Palestine “is the organization behind the marauding pro-Hamas protests that engulfed campuses nationwide in 2024” and the People’s City Council is “a Los Angeles-based far left activist organization.” The federal Department of Justice had already taken notice of their actions.

Last July, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division announced that “the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.” According to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the inaction “constitutes a clear violation of our federal civil rights laws, and the Justice Department will hold UCLA accountable to their legal obligations so that all students can have equal protection under the law.” Similar violations have been going on at UC Berkeley.

In 2022, Israeli sociologist Yael Nativ served as a professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies (TDPS) In August 2023, Nativ submitted her application to teach the same dance course but after the attack of October 7, 2023 UC Berkeley declined to host Nativ

In August 2023, Nativ submitted her application to teach the same dance course she taught in 2022. But after the October 7, 2023, the campus would “not host Dr. Nativ again.” As the TDPS department’s SanSan Kwan explained, “things are very hot here right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the department and you in a terrible position if you taught here.” The anger of “graduate students,” code for Hamas, was the determining factor.

In 2024, the University of California at Davis was proclaimed one of the most anti-Semitic schools in the country, beating out Columbia, “the lodestar of pro-Hamas protests.”  American Studies assistant professor Jemma DeCristo, formerly known as Jeramy Decristo, tweeted threats to “Zionist journalists,” accompanies by photos of a cleaver, an axe, and blood.

During an “emergency teach-in” UC Davis faculty labeled Israel as “racist,” “genocidal,” “oppressive” and so forth. Present at the teach-in was leftist professor Joshua Clover, who teaches critical and political theory in the departments of English and Comparative Literature. At the teach-in, Clover said “I will condemn Hamas when Zionists condemn the entire Israeli state.” The same left-Muslim axis was on display at UCLA in 2021.

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors delivered the commencement address for the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She was on record that Israel was an “imperialist project” and Palestine was “our generation’s South Africa.” Under UCLA “Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion” Jerry Kang, UCLA became a safe-haven for Jew-hatred.

Groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) enjoyed free reign – and even encouragement – from faculty and administrators. The strongest response came not from within UCLA but “outside provocateur” David Horowitz.

Posters reading “Students for Justice in Palestine” and “#Jew Haters” began appearing at UCLA. Horowitz called on UCLA to remove campus privileges and funding of SJP because they are a hate group and as such violated UCLA’s “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance.”

After 10/7, the pro-Hamas forces mounted a surge in the Cal State university system. Last year the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt for egregious harassment of Jewish student, who were “pelted with fake blood, subjected to anti-Semitic slurs and forced out of parts of campus.” The administration’s response was to tell Jewish students to hide their Jewish identity. Administrators rebuffed claims from harassed Jewish students and failed to take action to support them.

Anti-Semitism has also infested California high-schools in affluent districts, with anti-Semitic slurs directed against Jewish students, charges that Israel is an oppressive “apartheid” state, and so forth. This goes on with little attention from Gov. Gavin Newsom and attorney general Rob Bonta.

California politicians and education officials talk a good game on civil rights, but when the targets of discrimination and harassment are Jews they tend to look the other way. Under the Trump administration, the federal DOJ has taken up the cause, and the recent ruling on the UCLA case is a good sign. Frontpage will be watching.