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Jewish students file lawsuit against UCLA over anti-Israel encampment on campus
Three Jewish students filed a civil rights lawsuit against the University of California Board of Regents and university officials, claiming UCLA allowed “antisemitic activists” to prevent Jewish students from walking to classes, offices and the library on campus during anti-Israel demonstrations in April and May.
Two law students and an undergraduate student allege that UCLA allowed a group of students and outside demonstrators to set up an encampment, and that these demonstrators prevented Jewish students and faculty from accessing the heart of campus, according to the complaint.
This comes amid the ongoing war in the Middle East between Hamas terrorists and Israeli forces, which stems from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks against Israel that led to a retaliatory military response from Israel.
Since Oct. 7, anti-Israel demonstrations have been observed on college campuses across the U.S. and around the world. Other lawsuits have been filed over the campus protests by students claiming their universities failed to keep campuses safe. Schools facing lawsuits include Rutgers University and Columbia University, which this week settled with a Jewish student who brought a lawsuit against the university over an “unsafe educational environment.”
COLLEGES HIT WITH LAWSUITS OVER HANDLING OF ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPUS PROTESTS
Hundreds of students protest outside the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
The complaint against UCLA said the university allowed protesters to set up an encampment that enforced a “Jew Exclusion Zone,” stopping Jewish students and faculty from accessing the encampment and other parts of campus unless they agreed to disavow Israel’s right to exist. The activists used checkpoints, issued wristbands, built barriers and often locked arms to prevent Jewish students and faculty from passing through.
UCLA’s administration was aware of this for a week without taking action, according to the complaint, which also said UCLA instructed security staff to discourage unapproved students from attempting to cross through the areas blocked by the activists instead of clearing the encampment.
“If masked agitators had excluded any other marginalized group at UCLA, Governor Newsom rightly would have sent in the National Guard immediately,” said Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the three Jewish students. “But UCLA instead caved to the antisemitic activists and allowed its Jewish students to be segregated from the heart of their own campus. That is a profound and illegal failure of leadership.”
“This is America in 2024—not Germany in 1939. It is disgusting that an elite American university would let itself devolve into a hotbed of antisemitism,” Rienzi continued. “UCLA’s administration should have to answer for allowing the Jew Exclusion Zone and promise that Jews will never again be segregated on campus.”
Since Oct. 7, anti-Jewish demonstrations have been observed on college campuses across the U.S. and around the world. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images)
UCLA said in a statement it is aware of the lawsuit and that it will review and respond in due course. The university said it remains committed to supporting the safety and well-being of the entire campus community.
According to the plaintiffs, activists within the encampment “viciously targeted” Jewish students on campus.
Plaintiff Yitzchok Frankel, a law student and father of four, said he faced antisemitic harassment and was forced to abandon his regular routes through campus because of the “Jew Exclusion Zone.”
Demonstrators allegedly repeatedly blocked plaintiff Joshua Ghayoum, a sophomore and history major, from accessing the library and other public spaces, and he claims to have heard chants at the encampment that included “death to Jews.”
UCLA STUDENT TEARS INTO ‘SQUAD’ FOR ‘GLORIFYING’ ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS: THEY SHOULD BE ‘ASHAMED’
Graffiti at the Powell Library on the UCLA campus where anti-Israel demonstrators erected an encampment on Monday, April 29, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)
The third plaintiff, law student Eden Shemuelian, said her final exam studies were severely compromised when she was forced to walk around the encampment and immerse herself in its antisemitic chants and signs to access the law school’s library.
The students are asking the court to ensure that Jews will never again face this kind of treatment on UCLA’s campus.
Police eventually cleared the UCLA encampment and arrested more than 200 people after a delayed law enforcement response.
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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — According to a new audit, the San Francisco Zoo violated city rules by spending $12 million on projects without required approval.
The report looks at the zoo’s finances from 2019 to last year. It claims the zoo was operating under a budget deficit for years while dealing with failures in management and financial planning.
Zoo officials must get permission from the city’s Park and Rec Commission for projects worth more than $50,000.
The report also details claims from zoo employees, saying the zoo has a toxic work environment because of favoritism and discrimination.
KRON4 received the below statement from the zoo’s CEO.
We appreciate the thorough work of the audit team and welcome recommendations that will strengthen the Zoo’s operations and long-term sustainability. Many improvements are already underway, and we are committed to implementing the remaining recommendations. We are grateful to the Mayor, Supervisor Melgar, and Rec and Park for working with us on a responsible loan structure that gives the Zoo the ability to continue this progress and fully deliver on the audit’s recommendations.
San Francisco Zoo CEO Cassandra Costello
The zoo is facing a more than $6 million budget deficit.
Ken Roczen led Hunter Lawrence into Round 16 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver with a four-point advantage and a newly acquired red plate. With Lawrence’s win and the reduction of three points, the two riders head to Salt Lake City in a winner-take-all scenario.
Lawrence won his heat, while Roczen finished third in Heat 2.
Lawrence took the feature lead early, and once he sniffed clean air, he steadily increased his gap on second.
“It’s good,” Lawrence told Peacock’s Will Christien. “[At the] five-second board, I’m just so excited. Let’s go out, have fun, and do what I love to do. It couldn’t have been much better than that.”
Lawrence cut the championship deficit to a single point heading into the season finale. The two riders each have five victories.
If Lawrence and Roczen manage to tie in points, which will happen if they finish in the middle of the pack with Lawrence on spot ahead of Roczen, the tiebreaker would come down to second-place results. Lawrence finished second five times early in the season; Roczen has two runner-up results.
Meanwhile, Roczen had a modest start and had to come through the pack. Once he settled into second, he lost the tow of the leader, and ultimately lost more than 12 seconds to Lawrence.
Returning from an injury suffered in Cleveland, Eli Tomac thrilled the hometown crowd with the final podium position. He stalled his bike in sand in the opening laps but executed Beast Mode in the middle stage of the feature.
Fourth-place Malcolm Stewart and Chase Sexton rounded out the top five.
In-Race Notes
Jorge Prado earned the holeshot, but Lawrence took the lead quickly.
Roczen slotted into fourth on the opening lap. There is a five-point gap between first and third in Supercross scoring.
But Roczen secured second from Prado on Lap 3, and trimmed three points from the gap.
Roczen lost 4.5 seconds to Lawrence as he made his way into second.
The third title contender, Cooper Webb, took third from Prado on Lap 5.
Lawrence had the flow in the opening laps. He extended his lead to 6.2 seconds on Lap 7.
Tomac stalled in the sand and fell outside the top five, but found his rhythm and climbed to fourth on Lap 8. Webb lost a position to Prado earlier in that lap.
Lawrence was on a rail, forcing Roczen to ride on the edge of his comfort zone.
A little further back in the field, Justin Barcia was sixth on Lap 10 in his second race back.
Tomac secured third from Prado on Lap 12.
Roczen fell to eight seconds behind on Lap 13. Eight minutes remained on the clock.
The top three settled into a rhythm with seven minutes on the clock. The gap between them was slowly widening.
Cooper and Dylan Ferrandis tangled while challenging for sixth.
One lap later, Webb tangled with Jorge Prado, and both riders lost momentum. Webb hit the dirt and dropped outside the top 10. That ended his dim hope of securing a fourth Supercross championship.
Malcolm Stewart moved into fifth.
One lap later, Stewart grabbed fourth from Sexton.
In all the chaos, Justin Barcia (eighth) climbed into the top 10 in his second race after returning from a scary crash in the season opener at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.
Seattle Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh is day-to-day with “general soreness” after being pulled from the lineup before Saturday’s game, manager Dan Wilson told reporters after a 3-2 loss in 10 innings against the Kansas City Royals.
Wilson said Raleigh underwent imaging, though he did not specify what on, and the team will assess their star catcher’s status Sunday.
“We’re trying to be as cautious as possible,” Wilson said.
Raleigh was originally slated to start at catcher and bat second in the middle game of the three-game series, but he was scratched from the lineup about 90 minutes before first pitch.
Mitch Garver got the start in place of Raleigh and went 1 for 4 at the plate and struck out three times, including to lead off the 10th inning.
Saturday’s game was the first Raleigh has missed this season. He had started 32 of the previous 33, including 25 at catcher, and came in as a pinch-hitter in the only game he didn’t start.
Raleigh is batting .186 with a .652 OPS, seven homers and four doubles this season. He has hit five home runs in his past 10 games.
Raleigh finished as the American League MVP runner-up during a record-setting campaign in 2025. He led baseball with 60 home runs, setting single-season MLB records for most home runs by a catcher and switch-hitter, as well as the Mariners’ single-season homer mark. Raleigh also drove in an AL-best 125 RBIs while hitting .247 with a .948 OPS.
The Mariners added a third catcher to their 26-man roster shortly after Raleigh was scratched from the lineup. Jhonny Pereda was called up from Triple-A Tacoma and infielder Will Wilson was placed on the 10-day injured list with fractured left thumb.
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