Judge high IQ, Protesters low IQ.
The idea of protesting something is to turn public opinion towards your position and influence action. The protestors are creating sympathy for Israel's ridiculous invasion of Gaza and are directing their ire at the wrong people. Nobody at UCLA has the slightest decision-making authority to do jack sheet. They might as well protest the Good Humor Man.
On the other hand, going nuts at the upcoming Dem National Convention should be loads of fun.
UCLA Must Ensure Equal Campus Access to Jewish Students, Judge Rules
A pro-Palestinian protest encampment blocked pathways to classrooms and access to finals, plaintiffs say
By Alyssa Lukpat, WSJ
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Updated Aug. 14, 2024 11:33 am ET
A federal judge ruled the University of California, Los Angeles, must ensure equal access to campus for Jewish students after some alleged in a lawsuit they were blocked by protesters at this spring’s pro-Palestinian encampments.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday requiring that if Jewish students are blocked from certain programs, activities or parts of campus, UCLA must also stop providing access to all students. The injunction takes effect Thursday.
UCLA had some of the most violent protests last spring over the Israel-Hamas war. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators clashed, with fireworks and barricades being thrown, until police broke them up.
Pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment with metal barriers and required anyone who wanted to cross to pledge allegiance to the views of the protesters, according to three Jewish students who sued university administrators in June. Those permitted to enter the area were given wristbands. The encampment was set up for about a week starting at the end of April. The students said that the encampment blocked pathways to classrooms and later access to finals.
The Jewish students who filed the lawsuit said UCLA helped activists enforce a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus. They said security officers upheld the restriction instead of helping Jewish students through. The students—including an undergraduate and two law students—said their free speech and civil rights had been violated.
Yitzchok Frankel, one of the students, said, “No student should ever have to fear being blocked from their campus because they are Jewish. I am grateful that the court has ordered UCLA to put a stop to this shameful anti-Jewish conduct.”
Scarsi said the fact that Jewish students were excluded from parts of campus because they refused to denounce their faith was “so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.”
UCLA said in a response filed last month that it created a new campus-safety office following the protests. The school said a court shouldn’t be able to manage UCLA’s response to protests. The injunction issued by Scarsi doesn’t mandate the school to create any specific policies.
Mary Osako, a UCLA spokeswoman, said, “UCLA is committed to fostering a campus culture where everyone feels welcome and free from intimidation, discrimination, and harassment. The district court’s ruling would improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground and to meet the needs of the Bruin community.”
The University of California regents, who were also sued, didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators standing in front of a barricade at their encampment in May. Photo: etienne laurent/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Demonstrations to denounce the war in Gaza ramped up this spring at schools across the country. Universities and police attempted to curb the protests, resulting in thousands of arrests at those colleges during the final months of the academic year. Hundreds of protesters were arrested at UCLA. A Republican-led House committee has been looking into how schools including UCLA handled the protests.
Despite rule changes and efforts to engage with activists, some schools are bracing for further disruptions from protests as the fall semester approaches. The war in Gaza has been a flashpoint issue ahead of November’s presidential election, with the pro-Palestinian campus movement playing a role at raising awareness.
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