Trump administration targets University of California in antisemitism lawsuit

The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), alleging that the university failed to protect Jewish employees from antisemitic harassment amid pro-Palestinian protests that disrupted the campus in 2023 and 2024, CNN reports.

Filed ON February 24 in California, the lawsuit marks the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign targeting universities it claims have been lax in addressing antisemitism. The complaint accuses UCLA of failing to discipline participants in the protests, including dozens arrested in 2024 for refusing to vacate a campus encampment.

A University of California spokesperson referred requests for comment to UCLA, which did not immediately respond.

The lawsuit follows prior determinations by Trump administration officials that UCLA had failed to protect Jewish students. Last year, the university reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued over harassment. The new lawsuit contends that the harm to Jewish and Israeli employees “goes much deeper” than the prior settlement addressed.

“The United States will now do what UC has thus far failed to do: protect Jewish and Israeli employees” from antisemitic harassment, the suit states.

According to the 81-page complaint, “UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to — and at times facilitated — grossly antisemitic acts and systematically ignored cries for help from its own terrified Jewish and Israeli employees.”

Much of the lawsuit centers on a 2024 protest encampment that federal officials say blocked Jewish employees and students from parts of campus and featured antisemitic signs and chants. One night, counterprotesters attacked the encampment with traffic cones and pepper spray, leading to hours of fighting and injuring more than a dozen people before police intervened. The following day, after hundreds refused to leave, over 200 individuals were arrested.

The complaint alleges UCLA violated its own policies by tolerating the encampment and failing to discipline any students, faculty, or staff for antisemitic behavior. The lawsuit asks a judge to compel UCLA to enforce its anti-discrimination policies and to award damages to Jewish employees who faced a hostile work environment, without specifying a sum.

While the Trump administration has primarily focused on elite private universities in its efforts to address alleged liberal bias and antisemitism, UCLA is one of the few public universities targeted. Last summer, federal officials sought a $1 billion settlement from UCLA to end scrutiny, and the administration temporarily withheld hundreds of millions in federal funding, though a federal judge ordered the funds restored in September.

By Vafa Guliyeva