The U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against UCLA on Tuesday, accusing the school of tolerating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.
The Justice Department alleges in its complaint UCLA violated Title VI — a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving federal financial aid — “through its deliberate indifference to pervasive anti-Semitism on campus.”
The lawsuit points to an encampment built on the university’s campus in April 2024. Ministry of Justice Calling the move illegal and claiming Jewish students were attacked.
“Universities have an obligation to maintain safe and inclusive campuses for all students,” said Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.
“Universities that repeatedly fail to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism and violate our country’s civil rights laws will be held accountable.”
UCLA denies accusations
UCLA President Julio Frenk has denied the accusations and said the university has taken concrete steps to combat anti-Semitism on campus.
“Let me get this straight: The suggestion that UCLA is passive in the face of anti-Semitism is simply false,” Frenk said in a statement. “Fighting anti-Semitism is a moral imperative – for me it is rooted in personal history, which makes indifference unthinkable.”
Frenk said the university has hired a vice president for campus and community safety, reorganized the Office of Civil Rights, appointed a Title VI officer and strengthened policies to protect free speech and campus safety.
Frenk launched a campus-wide initiative to combat anti-Semitism, which released a report in May outlining a roadmap to address anti-Semitism and bigotry on campus.
The university suspended the activities of two student groups, Students for Justice, in February 2025 Palestine and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine for their involvement in protests at the home of UC Regent Jay Soares. The following month, the university recommended revoking SJP’s accreditation and suspending GSJP for four years.
Trump administration cracks down on anti-Semitism
The Justice Department announced the lawsuit earlier Tuesday, shortly after a federal appeals court partially upheld an injunction requiring the Justice Department to reinstate grants to the agency. University of California The Trump administration ended the program last year because it deemed them supportive of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The lawsuit is the latest legal action taken by the Trump administration to combat anti-Semitism at U.S. universities following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The 2023 attack killed more than 1,200 people and triggered the Israel-Gaza war. More than 75,000 people died in the war.
After the war, hundreds of students in the United States and Europe held demonstrations calling for a ceasefire to end the war. In some cases, students occupied campus buildings.
