The Justice Department sued the University of California, Los Angeles, on Monday, accusing the university of allowing Jewish students to face a “hostile educational environment” during months of anti-Israel protests and encampment unrest that left students assaulted, blocked from campus buildings and fearful of attending class.
“The occupiers largely succeeded in their goal of making the heart of campus Judenrein — or at least free of Jews who did not share their desire to annihilate Israel,” the lawsuit stated.
In the 53-page complaint, the Justice Department accused UCLA of violating Title VI protections by showing “deliberate indifference” toward discrimination against Jewish students, allegations that could jeopardize federal funding.
“UCLA was deliberately indifferent to the suffering of its Jewish and Israeli students and declined to take meaningful action to protect them,” DOJ said.
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The lawsuit is part of a broader Trump administration effort to crack down on antisemitism tied to anti-Israel protests that spread across college campuses following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel
DOJ alleged that UCLA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion office “routinely ignored” more than 100 complaints of antisemitic harassment, which ranged from Jewish students being blocked from campus buildings to being beaten, pepper-sprayed and slapped with sticks. The Justice Department argued that the university’s “decision to ignore” these complaints violated Title VI, suggesting that the school could lose federal funding and pay restitution to the government.
The lawsuit’s central allegation focuses on UCLA’s handling of the anti-Israel protest encampment that formed on campus in late April 2024 and lasted about a week. At the time, anti-Israel encampments popped up on dozens of college campuses across the country in response to escalating tensions in the Gaza war. The conduct within the encampment prompted the Trump administration to create an antisemitism task force that visited UCLA.
The anti-Israel encampment was set up on April 25, 2024, sparking complaints that protesters formed “human phalanxes” to block Jewish students from accessing buildings and other parts of campus. The lawsuit also alleges that one Jewish student was kicked to the ground and knocked unconscious.
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Police did not clear the encampment until May 2, 2024, during what was described as a chaotic scene in which anti-Israel protesters clashed with officers using pepper spray and fire extinguishers.
Confrontations at UCLA between anti-Israel protesters and police continued as six UCLA police officers were injured on June 10, 2024, during an attempt to create a new encampment.
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Even after voicing concerns over the violence seen during the spring 2024 anti-Israel protests, UCLA school safety officers were instructed to prioritize “de-escalation” rather than aggressively enforcing school policies during future anti-Israel protests that sprang up in 2025 and 2026.
At one Students for Justice of Palestine demonstration held on Oct. 7, 2025, officers stood by and did not engage even though some of the participants were breaking the campus’ “no masking rule.” An officer was asked why they weren’t enforcing the rules, and he replied by saying he “not that high up on that totem pole” to make that call.
The lawsuit heavily cited the findings of UCLA’s own task force in the lawsuit to back up its claims that school leadership failed to properly protect Jewish students on campus.
“Indeed, UCLA’s Task Force found that ‘throughout most of 2023-2024, campus leadership repeatedly decided not to enforce federal law, state law, and University and campus rules,’ ‘resulting in failure to protect the Constitutional rights,’ of Jews on campus,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit cited a poll conducted of Jewish students finding that 59.6% of students “reported spending less time on campus due to antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias” and and that 41.4% considered leaving the school because of antisemitism.
The Trump administration’s lawsuit comes just months after the Justice Department filed a separate case against UCLA in February, accusing the university of antisemitic discrimination against Jewish and Israeli employees.
Fox News Digital reached out to UCLA for comment.
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