LOS ANGELES, CA – Human rights student activists protesting the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, and Jewish students—in separate complaints—are suing the University of California, Los Angeles, the New York Times reports.
Activists have accused UCLA of “allowing pro-Israel counter protestors to terrorize and assault people at an encampment set up on campus,” the New York Times explained.
The demonstrators in the camp, noted NYT, charge the school and various law enforcement of failing to protect them and shutting the camp down without legal justification, after it was allegedly attacked by pro-Israel activists over the course of several hours one night last year.
On the other hand, NYT stated, Jewish students said the camp was allowed to stay for days, even though it “created a hostile environment and prevented them from entering some parts of campus.”
According to NYT, the new lawsuit was submitted the same week the Trump administration joined a separate lawsuit filed by Jewish students and a Jewish professor, accusing UCLA of “failing to protect them from pro-Palestinian activists.”
The administration said it was “investigating complaints of antisemitism” at universities through a federal task force, NYT stated.
The new complaint, wrote NYT, filed on behalf of 35 pro-Palestinian activists, named 20 people as defendants, who were members of a “rioting mob” that allegedly attacked the camp.
Filed in superior court in Los Angeles County, they seek monetary damages for “physical and psychological injuries suffered by the protestors,” explained NYT.
According to the lawsuit, UCLA’s administration allowed pro-Israel counter protestors to broadcast a “loop of clips of graphic descriptions of …sexual violence, sounds of gunshots, screaming of babies, clips of President Biden pledging unconditional support for Israel, and extremely loud amplified music, including a children’s song that had been used to torture Palestinian prisoners,” the New York Times said.
Then, according to the lawsuit, counter protesters attacked the camp in the middle of the night on April 30. They sprayed chemical irritants into people’s eyes, reported NYT, and pulled down barricades which were then used as weapons.
The lawsuit also claimed attackers threw fireworks into the encampment, and that several people went to the hospital for injuries, according to NYT.
Meanwhile, UCLA’s administration, campus police, Los Angeles City police, and state highway patrol “stood by passively and ignored the pro-Palestinian group’s pleas for help,” stated the lawsuit, according to NYT.
The Times quoted a spokesman for UCLA president’s office, Stett Holbrook, who said the university had instituted reforms to promote safety and combat harassment and discrimination, and that “violence of any kind has no place at UC,” the Times reported.
The protestors’ lawsuit stated that, as violence escalated, private security officers fled and it took hours for police to replace them, reported NYT, adding the attack continued for nearly five hours, “from about 10:30 p.m. to about 3:15 a.m.”
“It was immediately apparent that there was not a semblance of protection for the physical safety of the encampment members, and the mob had successfully transformed a peaceful, interfaith community into a site of horror,” the Times said court papers stated.
According to the lawsuit, writes the Times, many of the counter protestors were not students, but community members, some of whom are named as defendants.
NYT cited the lead lawyer in the case, Thomas B. Harvey, who told the Times, “those were adult, grown members of the community … I think it’s a totally different understanding of who’s in that attack.”
According to NYT, less than 12 hours after the counter protestors’ attack, police disbanded the encampment, and subjected protestors to a “new round of violence” —being shot at with rubber bullets, beaten with batons, wrestled to the ground and restrained—which resulted in more than 200 arrests.
Thistle Boosinger was beaten by the counter protesters with a metal rod that shattered her hand and severed a nerve, reported the New York Times, adding Jakob Johnson (a UCLA graduate) was shot in the chest with a rubber bullet by police less than 10 feet away, and suffered heart and lung injuries and depression.
Attorney Harvey said that the plaintiffs identified counter protestors by analyzing a CNN report, and the court filing noted that none of the people who attacked the encampment were arrested, stated the NY Times.
The Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the separate lawsuit filed by Jewish students that accused pro-Palestinian protestors of setting up checkpoints to block people who supported the existence of the state of Israel, reported the NY Times.
According to the Trump administration, “the statement of interest is part of the task force’s nationwide effort to combat antisemitism in all of its forms,” wrote NYT.
The protest activity continues more quietly now, a year after the encampment disbandment, stated the NY Times, noting two dozen protesters gathered at UCLA recently to call on the university to “divest from money tied to Israel,” and to call for a public meeting with the University of California Board of Regents.
