The California Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA), along with local civil rights attorneys and leading personal injury firms, announced the filing of a lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Police Department, the UCLA Police Department, and several perpetrators of violence against pro-Palestinian activists at the university’s anti-genocide encampment last spring.
WATCH: CAIR-CA Press Conference Announcing Lawsuit Against UCLA and Pro-Israel Extremists
The lawsuit, filed jointly with the Law Offices of Thomas B. Harvey, Kleiman/Rajaram, Kermani LLP, Judah Law Group LC, Shefman Law Group, HH Law Firm, and attorneys Lina Kaisey, Wade McMullen, and Ezra Ritchin, represents 35 UCLA students, faculty, and community members targeted by the encampment attack.
On April 30, 2024, a group of pro-Israel extremists entered the UCLA campus in the middle of the night and violently attacked peaceful protesters in the encampment for hours, injuring several people. The assailants shot fireworks at the protesters, attacked them with chemical weapons, metal rods, poles, and boards, engaged in psychological warfare, and attempted to tear down the encampment—all while the UCLA police department and private security companies stood by and watched.
Starting the following day, May 1, and into the morning of May 2, law enforcement officers wearing body armor and face shields and armed with guns hurling flashbangs and shooting rubber bullets entered the encampment and began dismantling the tents and barriers around it. CAIR-LA received reports of several injuries to protesters.
The lawsuit seeks to hold those who engaged in violence, harassment, and intimidation against Palestine solidarity activists accountable and remedy the failure of UCLA leadership to protect pro-Palestinian activists.
In a statement, CAIR-LA Civil Rights Managing Attorney Dina Chehata, Esq., said:
“For a university whose motto is ‘Fiat Lux,’ or ‘Let There Be Light,’ that night of terror will be remembered as one of the darkest moments in UCLA’s history … This lawsuit is a strong reminder to UCLA and every thug, whether you’re attacking students at a public university, or issuing orders from the oval office: free speech in this country should never be silenced just because you don’t agree with it, plain and simple.”
In a statement, Civil Rights Lawyer Thomas Harvey, Esq., said:
“For exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly in solidarity with people in Palestine, a mob of violent counter-protesters, many of whom are self-proclaimed Zionists and members of white supremacist groups, relentlessly attacked the peaceful members of the Palestine solidarity encampment for more than four hours … This suit is being brought as the U.S. government seeks to erase the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism and reduce all speech in favor of Palestine to not just antisemitism, but terrorism.”
In a statement, UCLA graduate & plaintiff Afnan Khawaja said:
“The true violence [is] the silence of an institution that calls itself the ‘number one public university.’ UCLA’s administration watched in merciless inaction as we were hunted on our own campus by a Zionist mob … What is freedom of speech if students cannot speak their minds? What is a top-ranked university if it values reputation over the well-being of its students?”
In a statement, UCLA graduate student & plaintiff Binyamin Moryosef said:
“I am an Israeli American raised in a Jewish household, and I’ve been appalled by the antisemitism coming from this university … Opposing antisemitism, defending the rights of the oppressed, calling for the just and humane treatment of all people even in the face of opposition: that is what I was raised to believe, and what I stood for as I protested … I did not stand by the university engaging in injustice against the Palestinians, and I certainly won’t [stand by as] that injustice is done [to] me and my fellow members of this beautiful UCLA community. This lawsuit asks for the barest of respect towards the right to free expression [and] the right to voice our righteous opposition to the ever-present reality of imminent death every Palestinian child faces so long as the Israeli military continues its aggression.”
In a statement, community member & plaintiff Thistle Boosinger said:
“I feel completely ashamed that anyone could possibly think the students deserved this. UCLA not only watched and did nothing but [also] called in the police to brutalize their students, faculty, and community members, further denying them their rights and sending a loud and clear message that they value their investment portfolio over the lives and safety of real people.”
In a statement, UCLA faculty member & plaintiff Graeme Blair said:
“… With this lawsuit, I hope to seek a measure of accountability for [last] spring because these practices must change. We must be able to use our voices to call for an end to this genocide taking place in our names, with our taxpayer money, with our university’s money. Self-described Zionists, people affiliated with white supremacist groups, the police, and UCLA officials have tried to silence us. It isn’t going to work.”
UCLA has a long and well-documented history of discriminating against pro-Palestinian views. CAIR-CA’s Los Angeles office previously condemned the UCLA administration for threatening to withhold degrees from 55 students who were arrested for their participation in the anti-genocide encampment.
CAIR and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee previously designated UCLA as an “institution of particular concern” due to its creation of a hostile campus environment for Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and Jewish students, staff, and faculty opposing Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
CAIR-CA is a chapter of CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
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CONTACT: CAIR-LA Digital Communications Manager Enjy El-Kadi, (714) 851-4851 or eelkadi@cair.com; CAIR-LA Communications Coordinator Madi Morse-Hameed, mmorse-hameed@cair.com