Becket, the nonprofit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom, has pushed back against efforts by attorneys for the University of California, Los Angeles to excuse the school’s failure to protect Jewish students during pro-Hamas activists’ encampment protests.
The group released a statement on Wednesday updating developments in its case Frankel v. Regents of the University of California, in which the college has now “blamed everyone but itself for the rampant antisemitism that took place on its own campus.”
Dissecting the school’s response, Becket said UCLA “blamed the police for the delayed response of ‘several days.’ It blamed the victimized Jewish students for being in the ‘vicinity’ of an encampment that was blocking their access to critical campus facilities. And, for everything else, it blamed the ‘unidentified activists.’”
Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and an attorney for the students, said “in the end, UCLA has nobody to blame but itself for the harassment, assault and segregation of Jewish students on its campus.”
He added that UCLA “is scrambling to defend its actions and cover up its gross failure of leadership. It won’t work—UCLA will answer in court for the rampant antisemitism it allows and assists.”