UCLA’s antisemitism, everyone’s problem

The antisemitism at UCLA isn’t just a problem for Jews. It’s a threat to everyone’s civil rights.

When anti-Israel activists set up an “encampment” on campus in the spring of 2024, the university should have removed it immediately. Instead, UCLA put steel barriers around it.

The encampment soon blocked Jews from passing to their dorms or classes unless they rejected Zionism, i.e. Israel’s right to exist. Even then, the university did nothing.

But that wasn’t all. 

The encampment attracted plenty of media attention. But the activists refused to allow any journalists to enter. When one wearing news credentials walked in through a “media” entrance, he was instantly surrounded and assaulted by masked activists, who shoved him out.

That was a brazen violation of the First Amendment.

It rose to the attention of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which logged it as a press freedom violation — a disgrace for a public university like UCLA.

Activists have the right to protest, but they do not have the right to exclude others. And when they violate basic civil liberties — whether of a minority group, of journalists, or the public in general — universities have a duty to stop them. 

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Instead, UCLA provided tacit support for the encampment.

Gavin Newsom has refused to allow the university to reach a settlement with the Trump administration. He accuses Trump of trying to “silence academic freedom.”

If anything, it has been UCLA that has silenced the basic freedoms of Jews, Israelis, and the general public.

That is why the Department of Justice is right to sue UCLA. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi said this week that “UCLA administrators allegedly allowed virulent anti-Semitism to flourish on campus, harming students and staff alike.”

They certainly did. But they didn’t stop there. They also allowed thugs to use violence to suppress the news media, which had every right to be there.

As usual, when evil people and extremist political movements target Jews, they never stop there. Any society that tolerate attacks on Jews will soon tolerate attacks on anyone and everyone who does not bow to the mob’s whims.

University administrators in the UC system have not taken the problem seriously enough. 

Last week, The Daily Californian, the UC Berkeley student newspaper, reported that senior officials regarded civil rights claims by the Trump administration as “nonsense,” designed merely to create “stress.”

They need to learn their lesson in court.