Report says Jewish and Israeli students, faculty and staff were assaulted and threatened; panel says administrators should have taken more action against campus rules violations
A new report from a campus antisemitism task force accused the pro-Palestinian movement at the University of California, Los Angeles of triggering a torrent of abuse directed at Jewish and Israeli students, faculty and staff.
The 93-page report, released Tuesday by UCLA’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, said Jews on campus were assaulted and threatened while hateful expressions, including a swastika drawn on a classroom chalkboard and a protest sign that read, “Israelis are native 2 hell,” proliferated amid last spring’s pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel encampment movement.
Made up of students and faculty members, the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias at UCLA said the impact of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias on campus could have been lessened if administrators had taken more action against violations of campus rules, such as the ban on camping overnight on university property.
The report said administrators took a light hand out of respect for UCLA’s tradition of free expression, but that this particular protest movement was an aberration of that tradition because it is the first in UCLA history to foster bias and hate against a national, ethnic or religious group.
“The post-October 7th protest movement is different from past movements: it claims to be aimed at protecting Palestinians and demanding greater accountability from the Israeli government, but it has at the same time unleashed hate speech and symbols, bias, and illegal and offensive behavior against Jews and Israelis on campus,” the task force said in the report.