The US Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had sued the University of California, accusing the university of engaging in "an antisemitic hostile work environment" at its Los Angeles campus (UCLA).
In July, the Justice Department ruled that UCLA failed to prevent a hostile environment for its Jewish and Israeli students since the start of October 2023.
According to the Justice Department at the time, UCLA "violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th 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."
Earlier in July, the University of California announced that BDS is banned from all university entities, and student governments may not boycott any company “based on their association with a particular country,” as of Thursday, according to international media reports.
That same month, UCLA settled a lawsuit brought by a Jewish professor and Jewish students over its alleged failure to prevent antisemitic discrimination on campus during protest activity in 2024.
The total amount that was to be paid by UCLA following the Frankel v. Regents of the University of California case is $6,450,000, comprising $6,130,000 to the plaintiffs and $320,000 to the UCLA Initiative to Combat Antisemitism.
However, in November, a federal judge indefinitely barred the Trump administration from levying a fine in excess of $1 billion against the University of California system for failures in addressing campus antisemitism.
This followed an August announcement that the Trump administration had frozen $584 million in federal funding for UCLA after the government reprimanded the university over pro-Palestinian protests.
Antisemitic vandalism against UCLA Jewish employees
In February last year, a Jewish University of California Regent’s home was vandalized and surrounded by anti-Israel UC Los Angeles (UCLA) activist students, according to demonstration organizers.
Early on the morning of February 5, 2025, flyers were taped and red hands were painted onto the garage of UC regent and United Talent Agency vice chairman Jonathan Sures’s home, according to footage published on Instagram by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) UCLA.
“Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” read a banner placed on a hedge in front of the home, according to a photograph shared on social media by the Rank & File academic workers group at UCLA.
Michael Starr, Mathilda Heller and Andrew Lapin/JTA contributed to this report.