The judge’s order gives UCLA two days, until Thursday, to instruct UCLA police, security and student affairs that “they are not to aid or participate in any obstruction of access for Jewish students to ordinarily available programs, activities, and campus areas.” That coincides with orientation for the law school’s fall semester. Undergraduate fall-quarter classes begin in September.
Scarsi’s decision is not the final say on merits of the case. Instead, it says that the students who sued were likely to suffer irreparable harm if he did not issue a preliminary injunction while the case proceeds.
A UCLA official said in a statement that the order would “improperly hamstring” how the university could respond to campus happenings. “UCLA is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination, and harassment,” said Mary Osako, vice chancellor of strategic communications. “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. We’re closely reviewing the judge’s ruling and considering all our options moving forward.”
UCLA indicated in court filings prior to Tuesday that it would appeal an injunction.
The case centers on a pro-Palestinian encampment on Royce Quad that went up April 25. It was one of the largest and most controversial of those built on college campuses across the U.S. to demand that universities divest from financial ties to Israel. When a mob attacked the camp on April 30, law enforcement response was delayed by hours. Police broke apart the encampment on May 1 and arrested more than 200 people.
...On the question of whether the encampment discriminated against Jews, there has also been significant debate. Pro-Palestinian students and faculty activists at UCLA, including a Faculty for Justice in Palestine group that filed an amicus brief, have drawn a distinction. They say protests were anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish and that many protesters were Jewish. But to many Jews, Zionism — the belief in a Jewish state in the ancestral Jewish homeland — is key to Jewish identity. In his order, Scarsi gave a nod toward that view, saying that the plaintiffs “assert that supporting the Jewish state of Israel is their sincerely held religious belief.”
Tuesday’s court order increases pressure on University of California regents and campus leaders, who have said they will no longer tolerate encampments and will enforce protest rules. President Michael V. Drake is working with UC leadership on a systemwide plan on how campuses will respond to potential fall protests over the Israel-Hamas war and violations of free speech guidelines. State lawmakers are withholding $25 million in state funding until Drake delivers a report on those efforts by Oct. 1.
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/08/temporary-injunction-against-ucla.html. See also https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/07/it-came-but-from-different-source.html.
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