Seven weeks after pro-Palestinian students vandalized a Brentwood home of the University of California during a demonstration against the financial links of the UC with Israel, the UCLA prohibited this week an organization of the campus involved in the demonstration.
Students for justice in Palestine were informed Thursday of an “indefinite revocation” of its status as a group of registered students and another chapter, students graduates for justice in Palestine, was prohibited for four years.
“The UCLA is committed to promoting an environment where all students can live and learn freely and peacefully,” said a UCLA declaration on actions against clubs. “… We will continue to maintain our policies to ensure that the UCLA remains a safe and respectful learning environment for all members of our Bruin community.”
The representatives of the organizations did not respond to requests for comments on Friday. Groups have been in the heart of student activism for years that have reached a height at last year’s spring camp.
Decisions do not prevent them from protesting against the campus. As a public institution, limited parts of UCLA land are open to everyone to demonstrate in the most time of the day. But the measures prevent organizations from registering for the campus events, asking for student activity funds and representing otherwise as UCLA organization.
The prohibitions also represent a distance from the University of the local chapters of a pro-Palestinian organization which grew up in the colleges and is criticized by the Trump administration, the Republican Party and certain Jewish organizations for the defense of civil rights, including the anti-division league.
The UCLA is under several investigations of the Trump administration for its management of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and allegations of anti-Semitism.
The Trump administration has threatened to revoke federal funding for universities that do not comply with largely vague requests to reign in protest and fight against anti -Semitism.
Friday, the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor and Pensions said that it launched an investigation into American Muslims for Palestine in the midst of “reports that the group helped organize, support and facilitate violent anti -Semitic demonstrations that disrupt university campuses across the country”. This group was founded by Professor UC Berkeley Hatem Bazian, who also founded students for justice in Palestine while he studied in Berkeley more than three decades.
The two organizations were essential to the wave of pro-Palestinian activism across the United States since October 7, 2023, Hamas was attacking Israel and its war which followed in Gaza. Trump and the GOP accused the members of the group of being anti-Semitic supporters of Hamas, a terrorist group designated in the United States. Immigration authorities this month have arrested foreign student activists in several colleges on the east coast, accusing them of illegally promoting terrorism.
The UCLA joins several other UC and other campuses across the country that have prohibited or suspended students for justice in Palestine, including UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz.
On Tuesday, UC Davis also dissolved an association of law students who adopted a financial and academic boycott of Israel. Consequently, the university has taken control of $ 40,000 in group funds. A spokesperson for the UC Davis said the boycott had violated a UC policy forcing student government groups to be “neutral from the point of view”.
The students graduated from the UC Santa Cruz and other university workers of the UAW 4811 union were on strike last year as part of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations of the campus.
(Shmuel Thaler / Associated Press)
UCLA groups have undergone provisional suspensions since February 12, when Chancellor Julio Frenk announced the restrictions in a message on a campus level, citing “violence” during an action on February 5 at the UC Regent Jay Sures home.
“No one should never fear for their security. Without the feeling of fundamental security, humans cannot learn, teach, work and live – much less prospered and flourish. This is true, regardless of the group you are a member – or what identities you are holding. There is no room for violence in our Bruin community,” said Frenk’s letter.
At the time, groups of students responded via Instagram statements, saying that they had rejected “the accusations of Frenk that the students demonstrators committed violence against the UCLA community”.
Sures, vice-president of the United Talent Agency, said he was targeted because he was Jewish. In addition to the photos that showed that his property was vandalized with hands -shaped hands in the shape of red blood, there was a video of demonstrators briefly surrounding Sures in her car while trying to drive. An Instagram publication of February 5 by UCLA students for justice in Palestine groups also showed a tank image of Sures, which publicly spoke of his support for Israel, in a costume with fire burning behind him under a pro-Palestinian banner and his hands edited to appear bloody.
UC did not suspend the students for the gathering at the Regent home.
Students continued to protest against the UCLA, including events organized last week during a bimonthful meeting of UC regents. These demonstrations were opposed to billions of investments that UC has which are linked to arms companies, Israel and other targets of militant students. Last year, UC said that it had about $ 32 billion in its assets invested in areas that activists had opposed.
Pro-Palestinian students also began to attack other UC leaders in social media publications and events. On March 14, a group protested early in the morning in front of the UC Regent Elaine Batchlor home in Los Angeles.
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