Major Jewish advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against the leadership of the University of California (UC) system, alleging an unchecked spread of antisemitism on UC campuses.
The lawsuit accuses UC Berkeley of delaying punishments for students involved in discrimination against Jewish students, incidents that reportedly occurred since the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists in October.
Driving the news: The lawsuit raises concerns that campus student groups that exclude students based on their support for Israel may violate the Constitution.
- “Conditioning a Jew’s ability to participate in a student group on his or her renunciation of a core component of Jewish identity is no less pernicious than demanding the renunciation of some other core element of a student’s identity – whether based on race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual identity,” the lawsuit reads. “No such imposition is required – or would be remotely tolerated — of other students.”
- The lawsuit claims that campus groups celebrating the October attacks have led to violence against Jewish students, including physical attacks, threatening emails, and heckling.
- The lawsuit accuses the university of enabling the normalization of anti-Jewish hatred on campus by failing to act as required by UC rules and U.S. law, leading Jewish students to feel compelled to hide their identities.
- “By abdicating responsibility and failing to act as required by UC rules and U.S. law, the university has enabled the normalization of anti-Jewish hatred on campus,” the lawsuit said. “Jewish students feel compelled to hide their identities.”