UCLA settles with students for $6.13 MILLION after DOJ determined school violated civil rights during Gaza camp occupation

On Tuesday, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) agreed to pay $6 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Jewish students and faculty members over the school's handling of anti-Israel protests, including allowing protesters to ban Jews from a part of the campus known as a "Jew Exclusion Zone."

The announcement of the settlement came after the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced that UCLA violated federal civil rights laws by failing to address a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students on campus, in breach of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The lawsuit was brought in 2024 by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which accused UCLA of "aiding and abetting" antisemitic culture, including "segregating Jewish students and preventing them from accessing the heart of campus." 

According to a formal Notice of Violation released by the Civil Rights Division, UCLA acted with "deliberate indifference" in its response to reports of severe and pervasive harassment targeting Jewish and Israeli students following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks and the resulting escalation in tensions on college campuses nationwide. The Civil Rights Division enforces protections under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin by institutions receiving federal funding. That includes universities like UCLA, which now faces potential penalties and further oversight from the Justice Department.

“Our investigation into the University of California system has found concerning evidence of systemic anti-Semitism at UCLA that demands severe accountability from the institution,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This disgusting breach of civil rights against students will not stand: DOJ will force UCLA to pay a heavy price for putting Jewish Americans at risk and continue our ongoing investigations into other campuses in the UC system.”

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ Civil Rights Division added, “UCLA failed to take timely and appropriate action in response to credible claims of harm and hostility on its campus. Its 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.”

University officials failed to adequately respond to student complaints during and after the establishment of a Gaza encampment by anti-Israel activists on UCLA’s Royce Quad in May.

The encampment became a flashpoint for violence, discrimination, and intimidation. Jewish students were physically attacked and deliberately excluded from campus spaces during the encampment’s occupation. A Jewish woman and a man were reportedly beaten in separate unprovoked incidents, and multiple students were barred from entering campus due to their perceived support for Israel or their Jewish identity. The situation grew so volatile that UCLA was forced to cancel classes after violent confrontations between Gaza encampment protesters and pro-Israel counter-protesters, culminating in law enforcement dismantling the camp.

Last August, a federal judge ordered the school to stop allowing pro-Hamas activists to ban Jews from parts of the school's campus. A federal court said at the time, "In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith."

A federal judge still needs to give final approval to the consent judgment. UCLA will pay over $6.13 million to the plaintiffs.

Mary Osako, the UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, told Fox News that the university has taken "concrete action to enhance campus safety by creating a new Office of Campus and Community Safety, instituting new policies to manage protests on campus and taking decisive action for conduct that violates our longstanding policies."
 

She added, "Antisemitism has no place at UCLA, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to eradicating it from our community. We have reflected candidly on our progress and are working to expunge antisemitism from our community in its entirety. These efforts have been supplemented by our continuing work to eliminate antisemitism completely and definitively through our Initiative to Combat Antisemitism," she added. "This work, and today’s settlement, represent an important next step as we build upon our past efforts and stride toward fulfilling our promise of being an exemplary university."