'So abhorrent': Federal judge rules against UCLA in lawsuit over 'Jew Exclusion Zone'

A Los Angeles federal district Tuesday ordered the University of California, Los Angeles, to stop allowing and assisting antisemitic agitators to ban Jews from large parts of UCLA’s campus.  

In the wake of the horrifying attack in Israel on Oct. 7, anti-Israel activists on campus set up barricades in the center of campus that blocked access to critical educational infrastructure on campus. 

In a lawsuit filed by Becket Law and co-counsel Clement & Murphy PLLC, the religious liberty firm accused UCLA of "aiding and abetting" an antisemetic culture, including what effectively became a "Jew Exclusion Zone" on campus, "segregating Jewish students and preventing them from accessing the heart of campus." 

"To enter the Jew Exclusion Zone, a person had to make a statement pledging their allegiance to the activists' views and have someone within the encampment ‘vouch’ for the individual's fidelity to the activists' cause," the lawsuit said. "[T]he practical effect was to deny the overwhelming majority of Jews access to the heart of the campus."

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The lawsuit claimed that "UCLA's administration knew about the activists' extreme actions, including the exclusion of Jews."

"But, in a remarkable display of cowardice, appeasement, and illegality, the administration did nothing to stop it."

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block publicly acknowledged that "'students on their way to class have been physically blocked from accessing parts of the campus,’" the suit states. 

On Tuesday, a federal district court in California sided with the Jewish students, saying, "In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. 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."

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"UCLA does not dispute this. Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. 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," Judge Mark C. Scarsi said in the court order. 

Yitzchok Frankel is a third-year law student at UCLA and father of four who said he faced antisemitic harassment last semester for wearing a kippah and was forced to abandon his regular routes through campus because of the Jew Exclusion Zone. 

"No student should ever have to fear being blocked from their campus because they are Jewish," Frankel said. "I am grateful that the court has ordered UCLA to put a stop to this shameful anti-Jewish conduct." 

Frankel detailed how UCLA’s continued failures have forced him to cancel plans on campus with his family and to forgo opportunities to mentor incoming Jewish students on campus during orientation week. Eden Shemuelian, another law student, said he has also had to avoid using campus facilities and participating in law school orientation events because of UCLA’s continuing failures to ensure the safety and equal access of Jewish students. 

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Tuesday's ruling said that Frankel, Shemuelian and others should be allowed to return to campus without facing such antisemitic bigotry. The court-ordered injunction is the first in the nation against a university for allowing an antisemitic encampment to be established on campus. 

The injunction goes into effect today, Aug. 15. UCLA is expected to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

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Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, told Fox News Digital that the school is "closely reviewing the Judge’s ruling and considering all our options moving forward."

"UCLA is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination, and harassment," Osako said. "The district court’s ruling would improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs of the Bruin community."