‘Unimaginable and so abhorrent’: Judge slams blue state university for excluding Jewish students during protests

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that pro-Palestinian protesters cannot prevent Jewish students from accessing the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) following a lawsuit alleging students were “excluded from portions” of campus.

The case was brought by three Jewish students who argued that the pro-Palestinian protests that occupied the UCLA campus in April purposely excluded Jewish students, infringing on their religious freedom and “directly interfered with instruction by blocking students’ pathways to classrooms.” Trump-appointed Judge Mark C. Scarsi granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the university from “knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students from ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and campus areas.”

“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,” the judge wrote in the court decision.

The students also claimed they were prevented from attending or “evacuated” from exams.

The university argued that it is not responsible for the actions of the “third-party protesters” and that the case is moot as it relies on past actions that the university believes have been resolved. Scarsi rejected the argument saying the university has a responsibility to protect the students and has not proven it will not allow similar incidences to occur in the future.

“UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students . . . 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,” Scarsi wrote.

Protesters in April set up a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus and required students to denounce Israel and wear wristbands to identify their support for the cause. Over 100 demonstrators were arrested in May after turning violent, resulting in several injuries and a trashed campus.

Since the original week-long encampment was taken down by police the university has allowed three additional infractions to protest rules, once again allowing for university grounds to be occupied and campus events to be disrupted, court documents allege.

UCLA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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