Pro-Palestinian Activists Sue U.C.L.A. Over Encampment Attack

New York Times

20-03-2025

Pro-Palestinian activists are suing the University of California, Los Angeles, accusing it of allowing pro-Israel counterprotesters to terrorize and assault people at an encampment set up on campus last spring.
The pro-Palestinian camp became a major flashpoint in the conflict over the war in Gaza and over how universities responded. The demonstrators have accused the school and various police forces of failing to protect them and shutting down the camp without legal justification, after it was attacked by pro-Israel activists over the course of several hours one night in April.
But Jewish students said the university allowed the camp to stay for days, even though it had created a hostile environment and prevented them from entering some parts of campus.
The new lawsuit, announced on Thursday, came the same week the Trump administration joined a separate lawsuit filed by Jewish students and a Jewish professor, in June, accusing the university of failing to protect them from the pro-Palestinian activists. The administration says it is also investigating complaints of antisemitism at a growing list of universities, including U.C.L.A., through a federal task force.
The new complaint was filed on behalf of 35 pro-Palestinian activists, including students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and sympathizers. It also names 20 people as defendants who are described as members of a 'rioting mob.'
Filed in superior court in Los Angeles County, the lawsuit seeks monetary damages for physical and psychological injuries suffered by the protesters.
According to the suit, the university's administration allowed pro-Israel counterprotesters to mount a large jumbotron near the pro-Palestinian encampment, which broadcast 'a loop of clips of graphic descriptions of rape and sexual violence, sounds of gunshots, screaming babies, clips of President Biden pledging unconditional support for Israel, and extremely loud amplified music,' including a children's song that the lawsuit says was used to torture Palestinian prisoners.
The noise continued during the night and seeped into classrooms during the day, according to court papers.
Then, on April 30, the lawsuit says, counterprotesters, some in Guy Fawkes-like masks, some draped in Israeli flags, attacked the camp in the middle of the night. They sprayed chemical irritants into people's eyes and pulled down metal and wooden barricades, using them as weapons.
The lawsuit also says that attackers threw fireworks into the encampment, and that several people went to the hospital for injuries.
All the while, the lawsuit says, U.C.L.A.'s administration, the campus police, the Los Angeles police and the state highway patrol stood by passively and ignored the pro-Palestinian group's pleas for help.
Stett Holbrook, a spokesman for the University of California president's office, said that the university had instituted reforms to promote safety and combat harassment and discrimination systemwide. 'Violence of any kind has no place at U.C.,' he said in a statement. Highway patrol and the Los Angeles police said they would not comment on pending litigation.
As the violence escalated, private security officers fled the area, the lawsuit says, and it took hours for them to be replaced by the police. The attack continued for nearly five hours, from about 10:30 p.m. to about 3:15 a.m.
'It was immediately apparent that there was not a semblance of protection for the physical safety of the encampment members, and the mob had successfully transformed a peaceful, interfaith community into a site of horror,' court papers say.
According to the suit, many of the counterprotesters were not students but community members, including a Beverly Hills jeweler, a Laguna Beach attorney and a Los Angeles teenager, who are named as defendants. Many could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment. One who responded, David Merabi, an attorney in Los Angeles, said he is 70 and has back problems and was not at the encampment.
'Those were adult, grown members of the community,' Thomas B. Harvey, the lead lawyer in the case, said on Thursday, adding, 'I think it's a totally different understanding of who's in that attack.' The Council on American-Islamic Relations California is also providing legal assistance on the case.
Less than 12 hours after the attack, the police disbanded the encampment, and in doing so, according to the lawsuit, subjected protesters to a new round of violence, including being shot at with rubber bullets, beaten with batons, wrestled to the ground and restrained. The police raid resulted in more than 200 arrests.
One of the plaintiffs, Thistle Boosinger, was beaten by the counterprotesters with a metal rod that shattered her hand and severed a nerve, hurting her career as a drummer, according to the complaint.
Jakob Johnson, who graduated from U.C.L.A. last year, was shot in the chest with a rubber bullet by a police officer standing less than 10 feet away, the complaint says. He suffered heart and lung injuries and depression, and had to withdraw from law school, the complaint says.
Mr. Harvey said the plaintiffs had identified the counterprotesters by analyzing a CNN report on the violence that night, which captured some names and images. The lawsuit notes that none of the people who attacked the encampment were arrested.
On Monday, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the separate lawsuit filed by Jewish students. That lawsuit accused pro-Palestinian protesters of setting up checkpoints on campus to block people who supported the existence of the state of Israel. In a preliminary injunction in August, a federal judge said the checkpoints were 'abhorrent' to the constitutional right of religious freedom, and ordered the university to protect Jewish students.
'The statement of interest is part of the task force's nationwide effort to combat antisemitism in all of its forms,' the Trump administration said.
A year after the disbanding of the encampment, the protest activity continues, though more quietly.
About two dozen protesters gathered at U.C.L.A. for a second day on Wednesday to call on the university to divest from money tied to Israel, and to call for a public meeting with the University of California Board of Regents. They chanted, banged on drums and held a sign saying, 'Keep your eyes on Palestine.'