The University of California, Los Angeles, is withdrawing its appeal against a federal court order requiring the university to refrain from anti-Semitic discrimination against its Jewish students.
The court order, issued last week, is the first of its kind to hold an American university accountable for allowing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel encampments on its campus.
The three Jewish UCLA students behind the lawsuit claimed that anti-Israel activists prevented students “who refused to distance themselves from Israel” from entering areas in the heart of campus, effectively creating “no-go zones for Jews” across the entire university campus.
In a 16-page ruling, the presiding judge accused the school of allowing Jewish students to be subjected to such discriminatory treatment because of their faith. He added: “This fact is so unimaginable and contrary to our constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom that we must repeat it.”
The university appealed shortly thereafter, claiming the judge’s orders “unduly limit our ability to respond to events on the ground and meet the needs of the Bruin community.”
One of the lawyers for the three Jewish UCLA students, Mark Rienzi, who is also president of the law firm behind the lawsuit, Becket Law, called the statement “outrageous.”
“When someone says, ‘Don’t discriminate against Jews’ or ‘Don’t discriminate against any other group,’ the response should not be, ‘Oh, my goodness, that’s going to hurt me.’ The response should be, ‘Oh, I didn’t mean to discriminate against Jews,'” Rienzi told The Sun.
On Friday morning, the university announced that it would withdraw the appeal.
“UCLA is committed to creating an environment where every member of our community feels safe and welcome. On this point, we fully agree with the court,” UCLA said in a statement first seen by Politico.
Mr. Rienzi welcomed the decision to drop the appeal. “We are pleased that UCLA has fully recused itself,” he said in a statement released Friday morning. “Appealing Judge Scarsi’s very reasonable order to stop discriminating against Jews was always going to be a bad idea.”
“Rejecting this appeal is the first step toward restoring a campus that welcomes all, including its Jewish students,” he added.
While the university did not provide any information about what motivated the change of heart, the decision came just days after the University of California’s president released a statement offering several “actions” to “strengthen and clarify” free speech policies and procedures at the university system’s 10 campuses.
Some community members viewed the statement, which outlined proposals to clarify and strengthen the ban on encampments and identity concealment, as a de facto ban on encampments.
