US Justice Department sues UCLA alleging antisemitic educational environment

[u/awaythrowawaying]

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

[u/justafutz]

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!"

[u/20000RadsUnderTheSea → u/justafutz]

The denunciation of a state and its actions is not the denunciation of a religious belief. Conflating them is anti-semitic, Israel and its actions do not represent all jewish people, and associating them is causing a marked rise in anti-semitism. So no, it wasn't and isn't a jewish exclusion zone.

[u/justafutz → u/20000RadsUnderTheSea]

The denunciation of a state and its actions is not the denunciation of a religious belief. Conflating them is anti-semitic, Israel and its actions do not represent all jewish people, and associating them is causing a marked rise in anti-semitism. So no, it wasn't and isn't a jewish exclusion zone.

Excluding Jews unless they call to deny Jews the right to self-determination and agree with calls for violence against Jews and the expulsion of Jews from Israel, as happened on UCLA's campus, is antisemitism. It was absolutely a Jewish exclusion zone. A federal judge said so, and so did multiple students on campus who were excluded, and so did the UCLA Antisemitism Task Force. As the task force explained, any Jewish wearing visibly Jewish symbols like a kippah (yarmulke) or a Jewish star necklace was not allowed to attend their campus.

That's a Jewish exclusion zone.

Blaming Jews and the Jewish state for antisemitism is not only irrelevant, it shows a serious problem. No one here conflated Israel's actions with antisemitism. What they did is point out that Jews were excluded from campus because they are Jewish and believe in central tenets of the Jewish faith, and wore symbols that mark them as observant and proud Jews.

Excluding them for that is bigotry. It's a hate movement, full stop.

[u/20000RadsUnderTheSea → u/justafutz]

I believe that Jewish self-determination is not intrinsically linked to the state of Israel and its specific actions over the last few decades. Israel has done a poor job of preventing the worst actions of their settlers, committed numerous crimes against prisoners, funded Hamas, and otherwise done their best to degrade the conditions for peace in the region.

Conflating the actions of Israel with any specific ethnic group would be bigoted. The jewish community is more than just Israel and its actions. Their association is and always has been anti-semitic, and is often used as a thought-terminating cliche to shut down any legitimate critique of the Israeli government. And by linking the two, as the world's view on Israel becomes more negative, continuing to insist that Israel acts on behalf of all jews will only serve to increase anti-semitism.

And yeah, those things all sound horrible. Seems like the case should be a slam dunk then, and not just a settlement claiming no wrongdoing like the last on (interesting it would be only a settlement if the claims of the judge were as strong as you claim). Somehow, I'm not holding my breath on the accuracy of any claims affiliated with the cases put forth by this DOJ.

[u/justafutz → u/20000RadsUnderTheSea]

I believe that Jewish self-determination is not intrinsically linked to the state of Israel and its specific actions over the last few decades.

Stop conflating actions with the existence of Israel. This is about one, not the other.

Israel has done a poor job of preventing the worst actions of their settlers, committed numerous crimes against prisoners, funded Hamas, and otherwise done their best to degrade the conditions for peace in the region.

I'm going to ignore your conspiracy theories and focus on the point. The point is not this. I explained that above. The point is that these Jewish students were excluded for central tenets of their faith, and were targeted by the encampment if they were wearing anything identifying them as Jewish, like a Star of David or a yarmulke. That is antisemitism.

Conflating the actions of Israel with any specific ethnic group would be bigoted

You appear to be trying to argue that Jews are antisemitic by ignoring what I said. I said:

Blaming Jews and the Jewish state for antisemitism is not only irrelevant, it shows a serious problem. No one here conflated Israel's actions with antisemitism. What they did is point out that Jews were excluded from campus because they are Jewish and believe in central tenets of the Jewish faith, and wore symbols that mark them as observant and proud Jews.

You seem to be missing that. Try reading it again.

Seems like the case should be a slam dunk then, and not just a settlement claiming no wrongdoing like the last on (interesting it would be only a settlement if the claims of the judge were as strong as you claim).

Uh, I think you misunderstood the settlement. The settlement was saying UCLA doesn't admit that UCLA did something wrong, because it disputed that it was responsible for the protestors.

UCLA did not deny that there was antisemitism on campus, and that the encampment excluded Jews. In fact, the judge noted that in his opinion directly, saying:

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.

UCLA doesn't dispute that there was a Jew-free zone on campus. They only disputed that they were responsible.

Please try not to misstate that as well.

Somehow, I'm not holding my breath on the accuracy of any claims affiliated with the cases put forth by this DOJ.

Then feel free to read the report of the UCLA Antisemitism Task Force.