The University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) agreed Tuesday to pay $6.13 million to settle a lawsuit brought against it over claims that the school enabled antisemitic behavior last year during pro-Palestine protests on campus.
Forward reported that the settlement also includes a permanent court order that requires UCLA to prevent Jews from being excluded anywhere on campus. According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the nonprofit law firm that sued the school on behalf of the Jewish plaintiffs, the agreement is believed to encompass the largest private settlement in campus antisemitism cases.
The settlement money will be paid out to several Jewish organizations, including Hillel at UCLA, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles’ Campus Impact Network, and UCLA’s new Initiative to Combat Antisemitism. The settlement also goes toward damages to the plaintiffs and attorneys’ fees.
According to Forward, students at UCLA filed the lawsuit last year, headed by Yitzchok Frankel, a recent UCLA law graduate. As Zeale previously reported, the lawsuit claimed that UCLA officials failed to protect Jewish students from the campus encampments, barricades, and protests in May. Pro-Palestine activists also set up a “Jew Exclusion Zone,” which prevented Jewish students from accessing specific areas, including the library and classrooms.
According to a Becket Fund for Religious Liberty news release, “UCLA helped the agitators by providing metal barriers, stationing security to shoo Jews away, and catering to the wishes of the agitators instead of ensuring safe passage for Jews on campus.”
The firm also noted that school officials’ antisemitic behavior were documented by UCLA’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, which said that the school failed “in its legal obligation to protect First Amendment rights to the free exercise of religion.”
UCLA fought to avoid the lawsuit for a year, Forward reported, but Jewish students at the school were temporarily protected by a federal judge last summer while the case played out. A federal judge in July 2024 ordered UCLA to create and submit a plan to protect the Jewish students on campus, and in August issued a preliminary injunction that ordered UCLA to guarantee that the Jewish students had equal access to the entirety of campus, Zeale reported at the time. The July 29 order makes last year’s requirements for UCLA’s protection of Jewish students permanent.
According to the release, Frankel, the lead plaintiff in the case, applauded the court for mandating a safe environment for Jewish students on campus.
“When antisemites were terrorizing Jews and excluding them from campus, UCLA chose to protect the thugs and help keep Jews out,” Frankel said. “That was shameful, and it is sad that my own school defended those actions for more than a year. But today’s court judgment brings justice back to our campus and ensures Jews will be safe and be treated equally once again.”
Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and an attorney for the students, also celebrated the legal win.
“Campus administrators across the country willingly bent the knee to antisemites during the encampments,” he stated in the release. “They are now on notice: treating Jews like second-class citizens is wrong, illegal, and very costly. UCLA should be commended for accepting judgment against that misbehavior and setting the precedent that allowing mistreatment of Jews violates the Constitution and civil rights laws. Students across the country are safer for it.”