The U.S. Education Department has announced that its probe has concluded that University of California, Los Angeles did not violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in its response to Jew-hatred in 2018 during a Students for Justice in Palestine event on campus.
“UCLA’s response to the alleged harassment did not violate federal civil rights requirements,” the department stated, noting that it “found no evidence that anyone shared any information with the university regarding harassment occurring in association with the conference despite the university’s regular engagement with students who expressed concerns about the event taking place on campus.”
Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights at the department, said, “Everyone has a right to learn in an environment free from discriminatory harassment based on who they are. I appreciate the important steps UCLA took related to the antisemitism concerns we investigated, to protect student safety and to fulfill the university’s nondiscrimination responsibility to its community.”
UCLA’s then chancellor Gene Block wrote in 2018 that the SJP event must proceed even though members of the group had made antisemitic statements.
“In this case, I have fundamental disagreements with SJP, which has called for boycott against and divestment in Israel, actions that stigmatize that nation and label it a pariah state,” Block wrote. “The attempt to ostracize Israeli thinkers, and to declare off-limits even discussion with Israeli academics runs contrary to the values of inclusion, debate and discussion that are crucial to any university.
“Much of what will be said at that conference may be deeply objectionable—even personally hurtful—to those who believe that a complex conflict is being reduced to a one-sided caricature, or see a double standard that demonizes the world’s only Jewish state while other countries receive less condemnation for dreadful behavior. Indeed, there is fear among some that the conference will be infused with antisemitic rhetoric.
“Ultimately, we must combat speech that is distasteful with more and better speech. If universities can find ways to rise above the current rancor and if our students in particular can model our values, then that may well provide the very best hope for our future.”
