LOS ANGELES — A UCLA student filed a lawsuit against the University of California Regents Monday, claiming the school did not protect her and other Jewish students and faculty from “campus terrorists” during recent pro-Palestine protests.
The school received significant criticism for its response to violence that broke out after a group of counter-protesters tried to tear down a pro-Palestine encampment. The counter-protesters set off fireworks and allegedly deployed pepper spray or bear repellent.
According to the proposed class-action lawsuit filed by Liana Nitka with the Los Angeles Superior Court, the encampment of “campus terrorists” who set up tents on the UCLA campus intended to “create and sow division through actions disruption, chaos, and dissension,” ABC7 reports. The hoax of a peaceful protest was “enabled by and perpetrated under the university’s watchful eyes to such an extent that the Jewish students and faculty were so fearful for their lives and safety that they could not go into the university’s town square or anywhere else on campus without being verbally or physically assaulted by the campus terrorists,” the suit continues.
The lawsuit alleges Hamas-leaning faculty members offered extra credit and better grades for those who took part in the protests, all with the university’s knowledge and consent. It also claims nearly half of the protesters were “paid outside agitators” funded by wealthy Democratic donors. In part, the suit calls for the prevention of outside funding by antisemitic groups and organizations who require the university to “march to beat of an antisemitic drummer as opposed to the laws forbidding antisemitism and discrimination.”
Before the protests made headlines, Nitka claimed during a Chicano studies class last fall, her professor was “blatantly attacking Zionist identity during class, even though the course subject does not align with the topic of the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
The suit alleges civil rights violations, negligence, assault battery, and breach of contract, and is seeking compensatory damages.
