The US Department of Justice is investigating the University of California anti-Semitic discrimination after a demonstration of Israeli war in Gaza took place on campus last year.
“This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and use our resources to eradicate institutional anti-Semitism at our nation's universities.” statement Attorney General Pamela Bondi was released Wednesday.
The investigation investigates whether UC violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was involved in patterns or practices of discrimination against race, religion, and other employees against professors, staff and other employees.
Campus demonstrations about the war in Gaza have been held in the US since April 2024, causing inflamed departments of universities across the country. Columbia University in New York City has launched a protest after the October 7, 2023 attack that killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 48,000 Palestinians and forcibly expelled nearly 2 million survivors with severe food shortages, fuel and medical supplies amidst Israeli aid restrictions.
The conflict has prompted hundreds of campus demonstrations across the country, including the University of California, Los Angeles and other UC systems campuses. The protest was some of the biggest demonstrations held on US campuses since the anti-Vietnam War protest in the 1960s.
Students have expressed various requests to the university to publicly support the ceasefire in Gaza, to sell it from Israeli companies and companies that supply Israeli military forces, and to cut ties with Israeli universities.
The protests in the US had an impact on similar demonstrations in the UK and Europe.
The UCLA protests caught the public's attention after violence exploded between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters on campus in late April. Shortly afterwards, hundreds of police in riot gear gathered at the camp and ordered pro-Palestinian protesters to face dispersal or arrest.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Leo Terrell, a member of the federal task force that fights anti-Semitism and senior attorney general counsel for civil rights, said: But these campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish teachers and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of anti-Semitic hostility and hatred. ”
The Department of Justice investigation will come in a few months The US Department of Education investigated nine complaints against UC schools Agreements have been reached with the UC System in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Davis and Santa Cruz. The complaint argued that the school had failed to effectively deal with anti-Semitism and anti-Arab harassment.
The UC system has agreed to strengthen reporting complaints to the Civil Rights Office and review all complaints and harassment reports over the past two years to determine whether further action is necessary. The agreement also calls for more training for university employees and campus police officers in their duties under federal law.
The UCLA investigation is attributed in part to compliance concerns related to the approximately 150 reports schools received in October and November 2023, as well as pro-Palestinian camps in the spring, the department said.
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The new investigation follows Donald Trump's threat to withdraw federal funds from schools that continue to allow what he called an “illegal protest.”
“Agitators will be imprisoned or sent back to the country they came to forever. American students will be expelled forever, or [sic] A crime arrested. There are no masks! Thank you for paying attention to this issue,” said the US President. I wrote it A true society.
The Trump administration was specifically named Columbia University in a previous statement Announcement that it will be reviewedand managed to subtract more than $50 million from government contracts from the Ivy League's “continuous omissions in the face of merciless harassment of Jewish students.”
Reports show that 97% of US campuses are in peace against the Gaza War since mid-April. Of the 553 demonstrations analyzed between April 18th and May 3rd, fewer than 20 protests with serious violence or property damage.
