r/moderatepolitics 2d ago

News Article US Justice Department sues UCLA alleging antisemitic educational environment

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-justice-department-sues-ucla-alleging-antisemitic-educational-environment-2026-05-26/
127 Upvotes

158 comments sorted by

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u/oath2order Maximum Malarkey 2d ago

Yeah okay.

We'll see what happens. It is okay to be pro-Palestine. It is not okay to be pro-Hamas. This seems like an easy case, but as we've seen with this DOJ's inability to indict a sub sandwich, I have the feeling it will be bungled.

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u/lostroadrunner22 2d ago

I think having ‘Jewish Exclusion Zones’ is wrong. Call me crazy

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u/justafutz 2d ago

Reminder for those denying the above that a federal judge opened his opinion on this subject like this:

“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. UCLA does not dispute this.”

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u/notapersonaltrainer 2d ago edited 1d ago

The casual normalization and contempt about the push back is the freakiest part.

No progressive campus would tolerate arab/muslim exclusion zones that force students to denounce Islam while chanting "Globalize the Crusade" "There is only One Solution, Crusade revolution!" or "From the Caucasus to the Red Sea, Mesopotamia will be free!". No one would unironically stick up for this with "but but Crusade just means 'taking the cross'". Or defend leadership condoning "context dependent arab genocide" on national television.

There would be mass expulsions, department purges, and careers nuked for life if a fraction of this targeted any other ethnicity or religion.

There is only one ethnic superminority for whom this kind of farcical treatment is normalized, defended, and celebrated while its whistleblowers are the ones treated as the problem.

It is so normalized that many can't even conceive the valid & overdue lashback without unapologetically invoking more antisemitic "string pulling" tropes.

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u/Mantergeistmann 1d ago

unironically arguing "Crusade just means 'taking the cross'"

That one at least has a bit of scholarly argument in support of it, but I'd imagine the vast majority of Deus Vult-Bros have never engaged with it, and certainly would not undertake any difficult or dangerous task in the name of penance themselves, "for the remission of sins".

the faithful went to war to defend Christians, to punish the attackers, and to right terrible wrongs. As Riley-Smith has written elsewhere, crusading was seen as an act of love—specifically the love of God and the love of neighbor. By pushing back Muslim aggression and restoring Eastern Christianity, the Crusaders were—at great peril to themselves—imitating the Good Samaritan. Or, as Innocent II told the Knights Templar, “You carry out in deeds the words of the gospel, ‘Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’”

But the Crusades were not just wars. They were holy wars, and that is what made them different from what came before. They were made holy not by their target but by the Crusaders’ sacrifice. The Crusade was a pilgrimage and thereby an act of penance. When Urban II called the First Crusade in 1095, he created a model that would be followed for centuries. Crusaders who undertook that burden with right intention and after confessing their sins would receive a plenary indulgence. The indulgence was a recognition that they undertook these sacrifices for Christ, who was crucified again in the tribulations of his people.

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u/notapersonaltrainer 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yes, today's Western Crusades curriculum basically ignores the context that the Middle East was largely Judeo-Christian and was conquered through centuries of Islamic crusades, along with swaths of Europe, before Christendom cooperated and mounted a far more limited counteroffensive. But since crusade is white-coded and jihad brown-coded, the only the crusaders are the baddies.

But that's a whole other tangent in the historical double-standards rabbit hole I didn't want to go down for brevity.

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u/Kawhi_Leonard_ 21h ago

That is undoubtedly the worst map I've ever seen. Where's the Reconquista? Where's the Byzantine campaigns in Anatolia? What about the Baltic Crusades or the numerous battles across the Russian Steppe?

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u/Plastastic Social Democrat 1d ago edited 1d ago

That map is so ridiculous, you only count (some) major crusade battles and you counter with every minor skirmish in which muslims were involved.

EDIT: You might also want to ask Jews in the 11th century how 'Judeo-Christian' the Middle-East was considering the fact that there were more pogroms than you could shake a stick at.

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u/Mantergeistmann 1d ago

It also seems to be limited to a certain number of Crusades... I believe it was the 4th Crusade that sacked Constantinople? Plus I think some various Eastern European Crusades.

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u/Plastastic Social Democrat 1d ago

The Northern Crusades, yeah. You could also count the Hussite wars and the Albigensian Crusade.

If you really want to be fair and adhere to the same standards as the 'Muslim conquest battles' there's countless other conflicts you can include as well.

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u/TintedApostle 1d ago

The rest of the writing is as follow: "“Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters."

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u/justafutz 1d ago

Yes, and the next sentence is the federal judge saying they are wrong.

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u/BaudrillardsMirror 1d ago

> they refused to denounce their faith

Kind of crazy for a judge to conflate judaism and zionism to this level. The students didn't have to denounce their faith to enter the area, they had to denounce Israel.

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u/justafutz 1d ago

It's kind of crazy to read about the creation of Jew-free zones on campus and say "Ah, but they just had to denounce Israel!", ignoring all the history, what the encampment organizers actually did, the religious significance, and more.

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u/ATLEMT 1d ago

They shouldn’t have had to denounce anything.

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u/ArcBounds 1d ago

Can you clarify what happened? Were the students barred from classes, dorms, etc? Did the university ask them to reject their religion? What specifically happened and who did what. I gather there were student protestors, university officials, and Jewish students. What did each group do? It seems to me that it is a tough situation between the 1st amendment and allowing people to be safe.

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u/justafutz 1d ago

Can you clarify what happened? Were the students barred from classes, dorms, etc?

This report by the UCLA Antisemitism Task Force is helpful. Another useful place to look is the DOJ complaint in this case.

Jewish students were blocked by the encampment and protestors from entering Powell Library on campus, as well as Royce Hall, where some classes are held. Students wearing a kippah (yarmulke) or Jewish star (Star of David) were turned away from Royce Hall and Powell Library. Others were turned away unless they said Israel should be destroyed, which would deny Jews self-determination and for the vast majority of Jews (we're talking over 90%+ worldwide) would be the same as saying "I don't believe in my faith", as the task force notes.

UCLA itself did not block the students. The allegation is not that they did so. It's that they allowed a hostile environment against Jews to be enacted on campus and took no action to stop it, despite the underlying issues violating their campus policies. This is illegal under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The university previously claimed, in another lawsuit brought by students, that it had no obligation to intervene and couldn't be held liable because it didn't run the encampment. But this is, as a federal judge already ruled, contrary to civil rights law, which says if you're a taxpayer-funded institution, you can't just let people freely block students based on their religion or race or nationality on your campus, refuse to enforce the rules, and then claim "well it wasn't me doing it!".

UCLA took no action to disperse the encampment or guarantee free action. It also has/had an office dedicated to complaints about bigotry and discrimination, and it received over a hundred complaints and took no action on any of them. Students who reported being assaulted by the protestors or others and called "k-words" and similar were brushed off by university officials, who either downplayed the assaults and language or ignored them entirely.

UCLA declined to enforce its own rules to prevent this hostile environment. UCLA also refused to report any of its own students or cooperate with authorities when those students were sought for criminal activities, including assaulting Jews. UCLA is not required to cooperate of course, but it is part of a pattern of protecting those who were assaulting and harassing Jewish students, and proves deliberate indifference to the hostile environment.

As the DOJ complaint says, "Although students and faculty have a right to peacefully protest, they may do so only in accordance with UCLA's lawful time, place, and manner restrictions," but UCLA failed to enforce its rules at all, "resulting in failure to protect the Constitutional rights of Jews on campus."

There is also a double-standard, which helps show that the school is not merely motivated by the First Amendment. The school generally cracks down against Jews. Here is testimony from one person on UCLA's campus recorded in the task force report:

People on campus are allowed to wear identity concealing masks and harass Jewish students and faculty with impunity while the campus community calls them ‘peaceful’ and comes to their defense. Meanwhile I know Jewish faculty who have been written up for microaggressions, as Jews are attacked for weaponizing antisemitism against free speech and racial equity simply for speaking out against civil rights violations. Insanity reigns.

Jews are being punished for complaining about antisemitism by faculty and administrators, while those assaulting, harassing, and excluding Jews are given free rein.

If you want a full rundown, I suggest you read both the complaint and the report. They contain mountains of information. The complaint repeats the report in portions, but also has its own additional information. But it is not really a tough situation. When you have Jewish students being punished by administrators for "micro aggressions" for complaining about antisemitism, while antisemitism is not being punished, and you have Jewish students being physically assaulted and intimidated and harassed on campus while administrators do nothing and stand by and watch (which they do not do when it's any other group being targeted), it's clear there's a huge problem. Whether that's enough to show deliberate indifference is always a tough fact-specific question, because UCLA will undoubtedly try (again) to plead ignorance, or settle, or claim they couldn't do anything about it, but that doesn't change that there was antisemitism on campus that violated their rules, even if they get away with arguing they were just powerless to stop it (absurd as that would be).

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u/markantona 10h ago

I was a UCLA student at the time and it was not a Jewish exclusion zone. I was not allowed into that area and am not Jewish. Literally majority of people weren’t. I tried to walk to class through it and they were turning around everyone. There were a few Jewish students that would go on Fox News, post on social media, and openly lie about the conditions to build a narrative. I knew multiple of them personally.

On top of this, the encampment started as a peaceful area people could enter and leave freely. The quad was open and you could walk in and around it. One night, counter protesters came in and started launching fireworks and assaulting people in the encampment with bats. Meanwhile, the news helicopter showed a line of police cars at chick fil a on Westwood Blvd. They refused to respond to it, which is why the encampment blocked off areas as they had to fend for themselves as they were assaulted.

I have no doubt there was some level of antisemitism and pro Hamas beliefs within the encampment. But it’s also inaccurate to say that it was a Jewish exclusionary zone because it wasn’t.

u/justafutz 2h ago

The antisemitism task force on UCLA’s campus and multiple others say you’re wrong, including people I personally know, and to call them peaceful is astounding when there are multiple documented assaults by them, including the day before the clash with counterprotestors.

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u/Interesting_Total_98 2d ago

Allegations from the DOJ shouldn't be assumed to be true.

It charged a woman for ramming an ICE vehicle, which sounds crazy too, but then it turned out that ICE is the one that rammed her vehicle.

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u/lostroadrunner22 2d ago

UCLA already admitted this. They paid 6 million dollars in settlement money

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u/Interesting_Total_98 2d ago edited 2d ago

From the article:

UCLA REJECTS ALLEGATIONS

Edit: The settlement is from last year, and no wrongdoing was admitted. If that alone means they're always guilty, then we should also say any accusation against Trump is accurate too.

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u/pinkycatcher 1d ago

The article has less value than the court case where they admitted many of these issues and don't dispute them.

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u/Interesting_Total_98 16h ago edited 11h ago

court case where they admitted

That never happened. The settlement excluded any admission. Paying money to end a more costly legal process is common and doesn't automatically prove guilt on its own.

Regardless, this is it's own case, and bringing up an old one isn't good enough to win.

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u/eddie_the_zombie 2d ago

Does that mean we can presume Trump guilty in every lawsuit he's ever settled, too?

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u/Big_TigerToes 1d ago

Yes have you not already been doing that?

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u/capecodcaper Liberty Lover 2d ago

This isn't any different than any other time

Police lie, agents lie. DOJ sometimes backs them. Happens under all the admins

I generally accept DoJ stuff but with a healthy dose of skepticism

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u/Interesting_Total_98 2d ago

The DOJ is far more aggressive and incompetent than before. The example I mentioned is particularly bad.

Another is trying to indict someone on a felony for throwing a sandwich at law enforcement. The grand jury reject it 3 times, which is embarrassing. The misdemeanor charge went to trial, but that failed too.

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u/lostroadrunner22 2d ago

This is more of the DoJ piling on. UCLA has already admitted guilt

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u/Interesting_Total_98 2d ago

From the article:

UCLA REJECTS ALLEGATIONS

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u/lostroadrunner22 1d ago

Which is why they paid millions. To say that. Lol.

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u/Interesting_Total_98 1d ago edited 1d ago

You conflated two different cases. You're talking about a settled case from last where no wrongdoing was admitted.

It's common to pay money to make a case go away because litigation can be most costly, regardless of guilt. Trump has done it, so you might as well say that any accusation against him is accurate as well.

This case is separate, so even if they were guilty last time, the DOJ still has to show proof.

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u/seacucumber3000 2d ago

You see you're honor, from the inertial reference frame of the ICE vehicle...

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u/MinaZata 2d ago

Reading into it, they NEVER called it that, they never stopped Jews specifically, they never engaged in anti-semiatic attacks, but asked people crossing the picket line to condemn Israel.

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u/justafutz 1d ago

You are wrong. That has already been debunked by a federal judge and admitted tacitly by UCLA, and by its task force on antisemitism.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-dis-crt-cd-cal/116482817.html

The judge’s opinion opens very clearly.

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u/lostroadrunner22 2d ago

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/justafutz 1d ago

UCLA said it didn’t do anything wrong because it claimed it had no control over the encampment (though a judge rejected that argument already).

But earlier in the case, as a federal judge explained, UCLA did not dispute (and thus already admitted) that Jews were excluded from campus based on their faith:

“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. UCLA does not dispute this. Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.”

They may have claimed innocence of legal liability. They did not deny that Jews were excluded from campus because of their faith.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/justafutz 1d ago

I guess it’s you versus a federal judge, the testimony of Jews on campus, the UCLA task force on antisemitism, the people I personally know who were denied access because of their Jewishness, and mountains of evidence.

It’s funny though that you think simply saying “it never happened” works. I guess you are pushing alternative facts. Not me.

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u/theKGS 1d ago

The linked article claims the same thing as the person you are responding to..

"News reporting indicates that the encampment's entrances were guarded by protesters, and people who supported the existence of the state of Israel were kept out of the encampment."

"Plaintiffs are three Jewish students who assert they have a religious obligation to support the Jewish state of Israel."

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u/justafutz 1d ago

So, again, Jews were excluded from campus because they believe in the religious Jewish tenet that Jews should have a homeland in Israel…the judge even explains this point and the denial of services to Jews in detail. The antisemitism task force at UCLA provides even more detail, pointing out that merely wearing a yarmulke or Star of David led to students being targeted.

Thank you for agreeing?

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/justafutz 1d ago edited 1d ago

Let's compare what you aid with what the federal judge said at the link I provided.

You:

It says students were denied access to an encampment in an outdoor quad by a group of protestors if they did not denounce support for the state of Israel

The judge:

Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith

You:

What it does NOT say is that Jews were blocked from accessing any "services" by the school on account of their religious beliefs.

The judge:

Here, UCLA made available certain of its programs, activities, and campus areas when certain students, including Plaintiffs, were excluded because of their genuinely held religious beliefs.

Among other things, the encampment protestors prevented the Plaintiffs from accessing portions of campus (which are services), including accessing the services of the library ("Similarly, Plaintiff Ghayoum was unable to access Powell Library because he understood that traversing the encampment, which blocked entrance to the library, carried a risk of violence"), and they were denied access to the services of the student union ("He also canceled plans to meet a friend at Ackerman Union after four protesters stopped him while he walked toward Janss Steps and repeatedly asked him if he had a wristband").

So it's weird you would completely ignore that the link says you're wrong while insisting that you're repeating what is in the link. The same is backed up by the antisemitism task force, which found that:

By April 30, students wearing a Star of David or a kippah, or those refusing to denounce their Zionism (which for many Jews, but not all, is akin to renouncing their Jewish faith), were physically blocked by the protesters’ phalanxes from entering or passing through the occupied area of Royce Quad, entering Royce Hall, or entering Powell Library.

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u/knign 2d ago

asked people crossing the picket line to condemn Israel.

How is it any better?

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u/MinaZata 2d ago

It isn't worse or better, but it isn't what the comment said it was. It is about true and false.

There's a massive difference between a Jewish Exclusion Zone and a picket line over a political issue.

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u/knign 2d ago

To me this seems like a distinction without a difference, but as long as we agree that it's not any better, ok.

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u/Caisers 2d ago

Facts matter.

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u/knign 2d ago

As I said above: I don't mind people's splitting the hair and try to never argue about definitions. To me, "condemn Israel to enter" is 100% a "Jewish Exclusion Zone", but the most important thing to agree that these are both equally unacceptable.

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u/Caisers 2d ago

Do you believe all Jews supports Israel? That sounds like what you are saying and is blatantly antisemitic.

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u/knign 2d ago

First, "support Israel" ≠ "refuse to 'condemn' Israel"

Second, vast majority of Jews do support Israel, regardless of their opinion about specific policies.

Third, it's immaterial. Some ethnic Jews don't even identify as Jews, other do identify as Jews but aren't considered "officially" Jewish, etc. People have ethnic identities, religious identities, cultural identities and political identities which often get intertwined in a complicated mesh. That's not the point.

Point, Israel as the Jewish state is inseparable from Jewish identity.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/sacredpredictions 1d ago

How so? I’m a Jewish born us citizen and my family and I have never been to Israel, in fact a lot of friends of ours have also never been. I personally could care less about Israel. I condemn the governments actions all the time and would have been able to pass thru the picket line 

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u/knign 1d ago

And if this was a picket line “no Jews allowed”, you could still claim you’re not and walk through. So?

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u/20000RadsUnderTheSea 1d ago

That’s true, a different situation from the one at hand in which people were excluded on the basis of their faith and which they would have to lie to get in would be different and bad, thank you.

I don’t know why you thought a good rebuttal to “the line was in reality permitting access on political belief and not religion” was “but what if they excluded on the basis of religion, hypothetically” when the law permits the first and doesn’t permit the second. Yeah dude, illegal things are illegal, but the point is that nothing illegal happened.

If the protestors refused to let people in unless they denounced Rhodesia, a white ethnostate instead a Jewish ethnostate, would you be claiming white people were prevented from entering?

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u/justafutz 1d ago

That’s true, a different situation from the one at hand in which people were excluded on the basis of their faith and which they would have to lie to get in would be different and bad, thank you.

The encampment and co. explicitly targeted anyone wearing Jewish symbols. The fact that some Jews are willing to denounce their religious beliefs in order to get by doesn't make it less of a Jewish exclusion zone.

If the protestors refused to let people in unless they denounced Rhodesia, a white ethnostate instead a Jewish ethnostate, would you be claiming white people were prevented from entering?

If I targeted anyone wearing Muslim garb and insisted they denounce the Palestinian ethnostate that Palestinians, per polls, seek to establish (contrary to Israel, which is not an ethnostate and which is a multi-cultural democracy with 2 million Arab citizens), that would be just as bigoted. It would be just as wrong. I'm not sure why people are pushing so hard to excuse it when it's happening to Jews, especially not when the best response is "but some Jews are willing to denounce key portions of their faith!"

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u/knign 1d ago

illegal things are illegal, but the point is that nothing illegal happened.

As a matter of fact, I believe a judge called this illegal. But this wasn't even my point.

Also, "ethnostate" is not a thing, and especially absurd when used with respect to Israel, one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world with full equality.

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u/MinaZata 2d ago

That's a big difference. Just actually think for a moment which is worst.

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u/jabberwockxeno 1d ago

I'm Jewish and I find Israel's actions abhorrent, so clearly the distinction does exist.

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u/justafutz 1d ago edited 1d ago

Are you supportive of encampment protestors who target anyone wearing a kippah and say they cannot get by unless they express support for globalizing the intifada, destroying the world's only Jewish state, and taking off Jewish star necklaces?

Because that's what happened on UCLA's campus. I don't know you or have any way to know if you're Jewish, but if you are as you say, do you support that kind of action, or do you condemn it?

And can you understand why the 90%+ of Jews worldwide, with very few exceptions, would be appalled at that kind of behavior?

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/justafutz 1d ago

Believing Jews have the right to self determination (Zionism) is not only an issue of rights for Jews (regardless of whether it’s a religious tenet), it is also something that the vast majority of Jews consider a fundamental tenet of Judaism. There are offshoots, as with any religion, but that doesn’t change the point about the vast, vast majority of Jews.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/justafutz 1d ago

Well, you’ve rewritten the definition of Zionism while accusing Jews of “colonizing” their historical homeland.

Zionism existed before the 19th century. It was not organized as a political movement until the 19th century. But it existed nevertheless.

It seems a little like you should read more about the origins and definition of Judaism and Zionism. I would suggest this guide. It’s very informative. It also details the issues you are wrong about.

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u/knign 1d ago

I have no idea how this debate is related to either, sorry.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/knign 1d ago

As I said above: a distinction without a difference.

Also, being Jewish is not a religion, and none of that has anything to do with Zionist movement.

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u/Early-Possibility367 2d ago

Even if somebody’s pro Hamas, which probably less than 1% of the US is, they still have freedom of speech. If they hinge the case on pro Palestine vs pro Hamas, the DOJ will lose.

I think it’ll be about Jewish rights on campus. It’ll hinge on if UCLA acted appropriately with regards to if Jewish students were allowed to use the campus un-impeded. And if those who impeded them were dealt with appropriately. 

I think one twist is that many of those involved were not UCLA students, so in their case it’s either a criminal indictment or nothing, whereas with students there’s the in-between option of institutional action.  

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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 1d ago

being pro-Hamas might be protected by freedom of speech, but chanting "From the river to the sea" while attacking Jewish-American students is not

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u/movingtobay2019 1d ago

Freedom of speech is not unlimited. It still baffle means people can't grasp this simple fact.

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u/StrikingYam7724 1d ago

I'd encourage looking at some actual polling on that subject because you've wildly underestimated the number.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/awaythrowawaying 2d ago

The question of how to differentiate pro-Palestinian sentiment with pro-Hamas sentiment is a central one in the ongoing debate within progressives. Many left wing advocacy groups and demonstrations openly stand with Hamas as the legitimate elected government of Palestine and therefore qualified to speak for them. However, other progressives and most moderates warn against this with the argument that Hamas is widely considered a sponsor of terrorism and an illegitimate political organization by the leading world authorities. Supporting Hamas is wrong on a moral as well as political level as doing so would probably lead to backlash from voters. The trouble arises because Hamas is the most visible and far reaching representation of the Palestinian people as a group - far more so than other competitors (ie. PLO). The Hamas flag is also considered to be essentially interchangeable with the Palestinian flag. How would a future Democratic Party president engage with Palestine politically without also engaging with Hamas, which has total domestic and foreign policy control over Palestine? Or should they readdress whether to legitimize Hamas on the world stage?

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u/knign 2d ago

The question of how to differentiate pro-Palestinian sentiment with pro-Hamas sentiment is a central one in the ongoing debate within progressives.

I think the question should be how any of that is related to universities and education.

If some students want to support Hamas, IRGC, RSF, or any other "resistance", they can do it as much as they want. Just not on campus and without interfering in the education process, and of course without harassing other students.

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u/Hyndis 1d ago

Supporting designated foreign terrorist organizations can carry severe legal penalties. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization since the Clinton admin, in 1997: https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations

People have the right to free speech, yes, but material aid is something else entirely, and the line gets really blurry when those protest groups start doing fundraising for their cause.

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u/roylennigan pragmatic progressive 1d ago

Sure, but it's a little hard to take seriously when the US government still sends money to the country that funded the terrorists who committed 9/11.

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u/PreviousCurrentThing 1d ago

What money are we sending KSA? They pay for all their weapons.

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u/roylennigan pragmatic progressive 1d ago

My bad, we're actually making money by sending tanks and guns to terrorist countries while labeling American citizens using their right to free speech as terrorists.

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u/Hyndis 1d ago

That a citizen of a country does something terrible doesn't mean that country's government is part of the acts. Citizens can do things independent of their government, especially if they have lots of resources.

Osama bin Laden was personally very wealthy, and the 9/11 attacks were extremely cheap to carry out. Boxcutters and airplane tickets were all they used.

The Saudi government does not benefit from attacking one of its best customers, and at the time the US was importing a lot of Saudi oil.

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u/persian_mamba 2d ago

Hamas is the Palestinians elected government. And that government is requesting for the entirety of Israel to be wiped off of earth. I'd say the equivalent of this is to have a Pro- Russia encampment, arguing that the Ukrainian government is massacring the Russian citizens with their bombs, Ukrainians are living on Russian homelands, and Russians should not have to face the consequences of their leader terrorist leader Putin. How would we address the encampments then?

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u/Interesting_Total_98 2d ago

The last election was in 2006. Hamas narrowly won a plurality. A majority of Palestinians today weren't born yet or were too young to vote.

Most recent polls show that support for Hamas is around 20-33%.

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u/knign 2d ago

Hamas narrowly won a plurality.

This is incorrect; Hamas won 74 seats out of 132 in Palestinian Legislative Council, a majority. What is true is that they received only slightly more votes than their main competitor, so their landslide victory was mostly due to much better use of complicated electoral system.

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u/Interesting_Total_98 2d ago

They received 44% of the vote, which means I'm correct. The seat majority is largely the result of half the seats were elected through majoritarian district races.

The seat count tells us how much power they had, but I was talking about how many votes they got.

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u/Mr-Irrelevant- 2d ago

Hamas is the Palestinians elected government.

Hamas does not control the West Bank so how is this true unless you believe every Palestinian lives solely in Gaza.

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u/Suspicious_Watch_978 1d ago

It's not really related to this specific topic, but antisemitism in general is getting pretty out of control. A few nutters have always been into it, which is true of everything no matter how distasteful, but lately I've seen it in people I absolutely never would've suspected. 

For example, I have a much older friend, lifelong Democrat, wealthy, well-connected socially, educated, politically engaged, anti-Trump and all that jazz; on Saturday the topic of Israel came up in the context of the war in Iran, and he said, verbatim, "We're only attacking them because of Israel. I know Israel controls our government."

In retrospect I wish I would've pushed back, but as the young guy at the table I was already a bit off my game, and I was caught off guard by how cavalier it was. The fact that everyone else chuckled a bit and carried on like normal made it seem like it was maybe a joke, but I really don't think it was. 

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u/Least_Palpitation_92 1d ago

Claiming a foreign government is doing something does not equal antisemitism.

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u/Baderkadonk 1d ago

Well this actually shows why I'm often skeptical about antisemitism complaints, they're often not antisemitic at all.

Israel is one of the main reasons we're in this war, but even if that wasn't true it still wouldn't be antisemitic to say so.

Criticizing a belligerent nation is okay and it does not mean someone is prejudiced against any particular religion.

Conflating the two is good for Israel and no one else.

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u/esotologist 1d ago

Israel does control our government, it is in fact the main reason we're in Iran. 

Israel has Nukes, it is actually illegal for us to be supporting them under Us law.

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u/usertaken_69 18h ago

We literally are attacking them because it’s what Israel wants.

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u/Mantergeistmann 2d ago

Wasn't this already posted half a week ago? Or is this something new?

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u/notapersonaltrainer 2d ago edited 2d ago

Perhaps you're thinking of these?

It's weird how we were constantly browbeaten about imperceptible microaggressions, implicit bias, or simply not having enough melanin for years.

But after televised jewish exclusions zones, "context dependent jewish genocide", politicians casually proposing sterilization concentration camps, jewish governor mansion arsons and street assassinations, and surging antisemitism that ramped before 2023, people are suddenly coming down with selective racism fatigue.

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u/soboshka 2d ago

Why is it they always claims they're just opposed to the Israeli government and then take out their frustrations on regular Jewish people?

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u/notapersonaltrainer 2d ago edited 1d ago

It's called a post-hoc rationalization. Notice the antisemitism surge started before 2023.

Antisemitism surged with the white adjacent guilt mania, alongside anti-asian violence and government condoned institutional racism against performant minorities. Israel responding to the biggest pogrom since the Holocaust was a bolt-on justification for what was already in motion.

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u/lostroadrunner22 2d ago

Honestly. The left really needs to have a conversation about their antisemitism

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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 1d ago

they're nominating a guy who had a literal SS tattoo to the Senate, so I wouldn't hold my breath

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u/bashar_al_assad 1d ago

Well Galindo lost her primary so it seems like they did.

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u/justafutz 1d ago

She also got 40% of the vote, so it doesn't seem like it. And others who are still in the same camp with only slightly-less-blatant comments won their primaries, like Chris Rabb, who suggested the massacre of Jews in Australia on Bondi Beach was a false flag by "Zionists", while Graham Platner is the nominee for Democrats in Maine's Senate election despite his history of racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic comments.

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u/CloudApprehensive322 2d ago

Pretending as if the right doesn't have its own massive issues with antisemitism is laughable.

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u/IllustriousHorsey 1d ago

Please highlight for me where anyone above claimed or pretended anything of that sort. If you can’t, then why are you bringing up non sequiturs? Though I’m 100% sure you’re discussing in good faith, it should be noted that other bad actors often use non sequiturs as a way of derailing conversations that paint themselves and their allies in a bad light.

But I’m sure that isn’t what’s going on here because this a place for good faith discussion. So would you please point out where in this conversation people were pretending the right doesn’t also have virulent antisemites on its side?

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u/TheTeenageOldman 1d ago

Which no one is doing. It's sad to see people on the left decide there's an issue where they don't have to police themselves because "the right is equally as bad if not worse." It really takes the slogan "Speaking truth to power" and throws it right in the trash.

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u/Interesting_Total_98 2d ago

Frivolous prosecutions from the DOJ have spiked as well, so I could see this case going either way.

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u/PreviousCurrentThing 1d ago

It's weird how we were constantly browbeaten about imperceptible microaggressions, implicit bias, or simply not having enough melanin for years.

It's weird how the people who spent the last ten+ years complaining about being browbeaten over microagressions and claims of "harm" being used to silence campus speech have adopted much of that same rhetoric to silence speech they don't like about Israel. Ben "facts don't care about your feelings" Shapiro had campus speaking events canceled because protesters said even allowing him to speak would constitute "harm," and now wants to suppress campus activism under the same logic.

I find it exhausting on both sides.

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u/bettercaust 22h ago

It's weird how we were constantly browbeaten about imperceptible microaggressions, implicit bias, or simply not having enough melanin for years.

I'm not contesting the strain of antisemitism evident, but citing a single cringe tweet from 2020 doesn't really substantiate your complaint.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

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u/justafutz 2d ago

Isn’t it weird to see the rampant antisemitism that has been on campus and say that this type of action is actually not about antisemitism and is being pushed by shadowy networks of Jews Israelis?

UCLA is a university where the encampments set up a Jew exclusion zone, and a federal judge already found that:

> 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.

The university went along with it, or rather, did nothing about it until forced.

This latest complaint points out that UCLA’s own task force on antisemitism concluded that UCLA had been deliberately indifferent and failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus, which is a violation of their civil rights. UCLA routinely received complaints about antisemitic conduct that violated its rules and routinely did nothing, according to the complaint.

You can complain about shadowy networks of foreign influence, but personally, I’m glad at least some people aren’t okay with this.

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u/nycbetches 2d ago edited 2d ago

Wasn’t UCLA where the counter-protestors attacked a pro-Palestinian protest and caused several of them to go to the hospital?

Would you support an investigation into the counter-protestors? 

Edit: here is a NYT article about the violence started by the counterprotestors, citing to video footage. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/03/us/ucla-protests-encampment-violence.html?rsrc=flt&unlocked_article_code=1.mlA.ZvsY.iarxg407-PQQ&smid=url-share

Doesn’t the university have an obligation to protect all of its students, including from violence perpetrated by other students? Why was this attack allowed to go on for five hours?

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u/justafutz 2d ago

It seems more than a little strange that we’re talking about how UCLA let students set up Jew free zones on campus for weeks, and your response is to say “well what about this incident where counter protestors got fed up and a clash broke out?” Whataboutism isn’t my favorite thing.

Yes, UCLA is where two sides of protestors got into a clash. The stories differ. What’s notable is that one side was enforcing a “Jew free zone” on campus, and the other was responding to that. Whoever was violent or started the violence should be investigated (and was). That has nothing to do with the fact that for weeks prior to that, the university turned a blind eye to an illegal encampment enforcing Jew free zones on campus. One of those is deliberate indifference, which is legally a civil rights violation by the university, while the other is just incompetence in a single incident.

In fact, if the university had cleared the encampment as required by law to protect the civil rights of its Jewish students, the clash wouldn’t have happened.

So in a way, thank you for bringing up yet another reason that UCLA’s failure to protect Jewish students spiraled into a clash that harmed even more people. Just more evidence of why it’s important to enforce rules to protect civil rights properly.

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u/nycbetches 2d ago

You should read the article I linked. The university had declared the encampment illegal and gave the protestors ~8 hours (overnight) to dismantle it. The counterprotestors attacked at the beginning of those 8 hours. The university police were standing by and, according to videos, did nothing to stop the attack. Why? I would think this would also be something the federal government would want to investigate. 

Surely your argument isn’t that citizens are entitled to take the law into their own hands when campus officials have clearly set forth a path forward…

 What’s notable is that one side was enforcing a “Jew free zone” on campus, and the other was responding to that.

The encampment they attacked wasn’t a “Jew-free zone,” in fact, there were Jewish protestors inside it, they had a seder…

You are conflating several different things. It is true that some people in the encampment refused to allow access through the encampment to people who were supportive of Israel (not just Jewish people). It is not true that the encampment was declared a “Jew-free zone” or that all of campus was a “Jew-free zone”. It’s important to stick to the facts in these discussions.

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u/justafutz 2d ago

That’s one version of the story about a single clash. That’s disagreed with by other sources. I think this timeline is important. I trust the NYT as much as a wet mop, considering its brutally awful coverage of this issue. The timeline is helpful. For example, it lists out how in the days before the clash, the encampment had repeatedly harassed and violently attacked Jewish students and others. The day before the clash, a Jewish female was assaulted and left bleeding from her head and admitted to the ER. She was kicked and pulled by the hair by the encampment’s participants.

It lists how that the encampment was declared illegal, but not cleared, on May 1, before the clash, because of their continued attacks on students that even UCLA could no longer ignore after weeks of violence and harassment. The dispersal order came **after** the clash, not before. While the timeline ultimately agrees on who instigated that specific clash, that doesn’t change much when you look at the context and the fact that if UCLA had protected its Jewish students’ civil rights for weeks prior, there would never have been a clash at all.

But it’s weird to talk about the clash without mentioning that for weeks, Jewish students were excluded from campus based on their beliefs with the creation of a “Jew free zone” on campus. That’s not my view, it’s the view of a federal judge, and the view of UCLA, which admitted as much.

We’re not about to do tokenizing Jews to make the point somehow okay. The encampment and the students in it spent weeks blocking Jewish students and faculty from campus and from their classes. That’s a civil rights violation. Pointing to tokenization by those Jews who did denounce their faith to join is irrelevant. This is like saying that if an encampment targets and blocks Black students from class until they say “we support segregation”, it’s okay because a few fringe Black students have supported resegregation (which is, believe it or not, a real thing). It’s nonsense. Imagine setting up an encampment that forces visibly Muslim students to denounce Islam, or agree to globalize the murder of Muslims, and everyone says it’s okay because they had some token maybe-Muslims host Eid inside.

The normalization of antisemitism is bad.

You don’t get to exclude Jewish students for weeks from their campus unless they’re willing to denounce their faith. A federal judge made that clear and UCLA didn’t dispute that it was happening. I have no idea why you’re suggesting it would be okay. I haven’t said it’s okay to be a vigilante. You can actually read above where I said that violence should be investigated, and *was* investigated.

What is unusual is that I can say that, but you are excusing Jew free zones on UCLA’s campus by tokenization. Not good.

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u/justafutz 1d ago

But your timeline supports exactly what I just said.

It feels like you may not have read what I said. I think that seems somewhat clear as well from how little you responded to. For example, I said:

While the timeline ultimately agrees on who instigated that specific clash, that doesn’t change much when you look at the context and the fact that if UCLA had protected its Jewish students’ civil rights for weeks prior, there would never have been a clash at all.

But you didn't answer that, for some reason.

U.C.L.A. declared the encampment illegal and ordered students to disperse on the afternoon of April 30. The attack by the counterprotestors happened that night into the early hours of May 1. I don’t think that is disagreed with by any sources.

There are plenty of people who disagree with it and were there. But that's fine. It's not really relevant to the point. The point is that UCLA allowed weeks of an encampment excluding and assaulting Jewish students unless they denounced their faith, and you are bringing up a single clash after those events, and a day after a female student was kicked and assaulted and sent to the ER, as if that is somehow relevant.

I'm not okay with whataboutism to deflect from the denial of Jewish students' civil rights.

This is absolutely incorrect. From your own link

Warning them that they will face consequences is not a timed dispersal order. Read the link again:

Police in riot gear massed on the UCLA campus and ordered a large group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators inside a fortified encampment to leave the area or face arrest late Wednesday

That was the dispersal order, given on May 2. This is borne out by other sources. The declaration that it was unlawful did not force dispersal.

Is it your opinion that this justifies or excuses attacking the encampment and sending multiple students to the hospital? If that isn’t your opinion, why is it relevant?

Once again, it seems like you're not reading what I said. You're responding to virtually none of it, while also trying to change the subject to a Jew-free-zone-enforcing encampment getting into a clash on a thread about UCLA's deliberate indifference to antisemitism on campus.

As I said:

I haven’t said it’s okay to be a vigilante. You can actually read above where I said that violence should be investigated, and was investigated.

You seem to have missed this.

I find this so offensive that I can’t really respond to it while being moderate.

OK. I'm sorry you find facts offensive.

I will just say that I do not agree with you that Jewish people protesting for a free Palestine is “denouncing their faith.” And I do not agree that it is tokenization either. I’m guessing you’re 45+. I’m younger, and in my generation, many Jews do not identify as Zionists. Polling bears this out. I guess you think we’re all “tokens”?

We're not going to sit here and talk about "free Palestine" and ignore the way Jewish students on campus were treated. What you think my age is, is irrelevant. What Jews "identify" as, remains irrelevant as well.

It's important to first establish the facts. The encampment was very much a Jew-free zone, and pushed to establish Jew-free zones on campus. This is something a federal judge already established, and UCLA already admitted:

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 is something UCLA did not dispute.

Nor was this about "a free Palestine", unless you mean the chant "from the river to the sea," which is originally "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab". The destruction of Israel is an explicit goal, yes, as is the removal of Jewish rights to self-determination, and the Arabic chant is explicitly about ethnic cleansing.

Now, let's talk about the encampment itself. It was not ignorant of the history or goals. It was explicit. The report of the antisemitism task force established by UCLA makes this clear.

Jewish students wearing a kippah (yarmulke) or a Star of David were refused access. Others were forced to renounce their Zionism, which is a central tenet of Judaism, the actual faith, that most Jews consider integral to their faith as well (offshoots of religions exist, but that doesn't change the overall point that you can't exclude religious people because some offshoots exist). These protestors were excluding Jews, and tokenizing a handful to say "but they didn't exclude all Jews" is not relevant to that fact. If you started targeting Muslims who are wearing religious garb, you'd get into similar trouble. Or you should. But you seem to be arguing it's fine as long as you only target some.

If I were to block visibly Muslim students from their classes unless they agree that Muhammad appointed Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor (i.e. if I exclude Sunni Muslims but allow in Shiite Muslims), it turns out I'm still creating a Muslim-free zone, and still denying people civil rights based on their religious beliefs. The same is true of Jews.

Now, let's not forget what the encampment said, either, since I mentioned the discussion about "free Palestine" and how you downplayed the antisemitism on full display from these students targeting Jews wearing religious items.

The graffiti from the encampment included phrases like "Fuck all Jews", "Israelis are native to Hell", and more. Jews said that they were repeatedly targeted on campus with the k-word, and statements like "Fuck you Jews, hope you fucking rot in hell where you all belong", which UCLA's administration ignored. A Native American Jewish woman with a sign reading "Hamas supporters are not welcome on native land" was assaulted by a mob while UCLA police stood by. Jewish students reported being approached by encampment members who told them they support Hamas, a genocidal terrorist group that wants Jews wiped off the planet. Calls for globalizing the intifada, i.e. calls for violence against Jews globally, were rampant.

Nor do I appreciate your attempt to assume my age and use it as some sort of argument. I'm not going to dox myself. What I will say is that the UCLA task force surveyed Jews on campus and found that most Jews say antisemitism is a problem on campus, and only 9% of Jews on campus felt no connection to Israel at all, 14.5% said a little connection, and over 75% said somewhat (18%) or very much connected (57.7%). Even polls that don't find high identification as "Zionist" because of the way that certain people have distorted the meaning of the term find that ~90% of Jews believe Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state (only 7% say no), and that number remains over 75% even for 18-34 year old Jews. So while they may not identify with the term that these encampment folks have used as a marker to assault them, the vast majority of Jews believe in the idea of Zionism, and excluding Jews from campus is creating a Jew-free zone.

But to get back to my point, if there are Jewish people in the encampment, by definition it cannot be a “Jew exclusion zone.” Hopefully we can agree on that

"If I allow a few Muslim tokens into my encampment who are willing to denounce their own faith, while excluding all other Muslim students from their classes and campus, it's not a Muslim-free zone" is not an argument I buy. I don't think anyone else does either. And a federal judge and UCLA have already ruled you are wrong.

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u/persian_mamba 1d ago

Just want to say I'm reading every word you said so far and I appreciate you not getting dragged out of your main point

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u/nycbetches 1d ago

 Officials at UCLA declared the pro-Palestinian encampment illegal for the first time on Tuesday [April 30] and warned protesters that they faced consequences if they did not leave.

warned protestors that they faced consequences if they did not leave.

if they did not leave.

That’s a dispersal order by any definition, lol, kind of weird to argue that it isn’t. They literally said “leave or there will be consequences.” And then they brought in the riot police after giving people some time to leave without facing immediate consequences. I don’t know how you can argue that the school wasn’t ordering the students to disperse. Not immediately, but within a short period of time.

Anyway, I will just say I disagree with you on multiple points and I haven’t seen you really engage with my points at all, so I think any further conversation at this point is counterproductive. 

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u/justafutz 1d ago

That’s a dispersal order by any definition, lol, kind of weird to argue that it isn’t. They literally said “leave or there will be consequences.” And then they brought in the riot police after giving people some time to leave without facing immediate consequences. I don’t know how you can argue that the school wasn’t ordering the students to disperse. Not immediately, but within a short period of time.

It's one thing to order dispersal by a particular time, it's another to declare something illegal and warn of consequences without ordering dispersal. I think that's pretty clear. The order to disperse was given after the clash. I've explained the distinction.

I haven’t seen you really engage with my points at all

The article we're talking about concerns allegations of UCLA's deliberate indifference and acquiescence to antisemitism on campus.

Your response was "But there was a clash where some of the encampment people excluding Jews from campus were allegedly attacked by counterprotestors, aren't you mad about that?"

I responded to each and every thing you said while pointing out the deflection. I not only engaged with your points, I took them on directly, provided sources, quoted each and every word you said, and directly responded to them. All while pointing out that this is a deflection from the main point, which is that for weeks UCLA allowed the encampment and its attendants to set up Jew-free zones on campus.

For you to now claim I haven't engaged with your points is appalling. I responded to each thing you said, and provided data (something you did not), while you insisted that I must be ignorant because I'm old (not something you knew or know).

I agree further conversation would be counterproductive. But that would be the case unless you begin addressing the subject and the arguments and data I provided. I think between the two of us, readers can see who was taking arguments head-on, and who was deflecting from the establishment of Jew-free zones on campus, the assaults on Jews, and the violation of Jewish students' civil rights to discuss one clash that took place on campus after-hours under disputed circumstances.

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u/IllustriousHorsey 1d ago

Engaging with your points does not require agreement. He very thoroughly engaged with your points. It may not be pleasant to realize you’ve been proven wrong, but as the old phrase amongst from the cancellation era goes, it’s a learning moment.

→ More replies (0)

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u/Achrus 1d ago

Why is the DoJ suing over Title VI violations then?

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u/justafutz 1d ago

The DOJ is suing over Title VI violations because UCLA was deliberately indifferent to antisemitism on campus that led to Jewish students being excluded from campus and campus services. That is a violation of Jewish students' civil rights, and is illegal for any entity (like UCLA) that receives taxpayer funding.

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u/Achrus 1d ago

Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith.

Title VI does not cover religion. Title VI instead prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. But not religion.

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u/justafutz 1d ago

http://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/title-vi/title-vi-key-issues/discrimination-based-shared-ancestry-or-ethnic-characteristics

None of the laws that OCR enforces expressly address religious discrimination. However, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) protects students of any religion from discrimination, including harassment, based on a student’s actual or perceived:

* shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, or

* citizenship or residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity.

In practice, this covers religion. Which is why I mentioned it that way instead of getting sucked into the nuances. When it comes to Jews, this is a long established application of Title VI.

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u/Achrus 1d ago

So they’re suing for Israel, not Judaism?

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u/justafutz 1d ago

No. As I explained, religion (especially Judaism) is typically covered by Title VI because of the "shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics" provision.

There are multiple counts in the DOJ complaint. Part of it is discrimination against Israelis on the basis of national origin, which is explicitly protected by Title VI. The second part is:

Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, including discrimination against Jews or those perceived to be Jewish because of their ancestry.

As I said, Jews are covered by Title VI. So it's both that they're suing over.

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u/capecodcaper Liberty Lover 2d ago

And yet all too often the very thin mask slips off and those claiming to be "anti zionists" slip up and say Jewish or start yelling about globalization of the infitada or from the river to the sea.

All of that is well ... anti-Semitic.

Palestinian supporters often handwave away the fact that extermination of the Jews is a core tenet of Hamas and leadership in Palestine.

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u/Toomster12489 1d ago

And yet all too often the mask slips and those elected Republicans claiming to be "protecting Americans from antisemitism" post a video of pro Israel protesters hollering monkey noises at a black woman for having the audacity to protest a genocide.

"Ole Miss taking care of business" - Rep Mike Collins (R - GA)

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u/capecodcaper Liberty Lover 1d ago

There wasn't a single Israeli flag in that group

Yea guy was racist but I saw one guy doing it. Not an entire crowd.

This is a weak example and not at all comparable to yelling genocidal chants.

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u/awaythrowawaying 2d ago

Starter comment: The Department of Justice has initiated a federal lawsuit against UCLA, specifically accusing it of violating Title VI which prohibits discrimination on the basis of various categories to include race and national origin. The DOJ alleges that a pro-Palestine encampment that was built on university grounds quickly turned into a pro-Hamas venue and its participants actively harassed Jewish students, making them fear for their lives. The DOJ further charges that UCLA officials coordinated a very slow response to this incident despite being given multiple reports of what was going on, thereby tacitly endorsing or accepting discrimination against Israelis and Jews. UCLA has not immediately responded to this lawsuit.

The question of antisemitism on campus has been a prominent one in the political and public eye for many years, and especially so after the October 2023 attacks during which Hamas fighters murdered large numbers of Israeli civilians which led to the current conflict between Israel and Palestine. Progressive politicians have generally walked a fine line between not supporting Hamas openly while also directing most of their rhetoric against Israel for engaging in what they describe as illegal and genocidal acts against Palestinians. Many college campuses in the U.S. have been turned into political battlegrounds; another famous example is Columbia University.

Is the Department of Justice correct in saying that universities across the country have employed discriminatory behavior against Israelis and Jews due to ideological differences? Or is this simply a politically motivated attack against academia? If it is real, how can Title VI best be enforced in these cases?

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u/Europa_Universheevs 2d ago

This is only happening because Trump doesn’t like UCLA.  If he liked them or they pledged fealty to him, these charges would be dropped.  Trump has shown time and again that his DoJ is for attacking his foes.  

This reminds me of when a member of the only group of refugees group Trump thinks should be allowed in (white South Africans) had extremely virulent antisemitism on his social media. There was no vetting needed for these people beyond checking their skin color and no need to deport him for being antisemitic because, unlike in all other cases where the person alleged to be antisemitic, this guy is part of a group Trump likes.

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u/PreparationPlenty943 1d ago

This. As much as I believe some institutions could be doing more to combat antisemitism, this move feels more motivated by the Trump administration having a gripe against progressives and finding an excuse to suppress them.