Wednesday, February 25, 2026
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DOJ Files Lawsuit Over Alleged Antisemitic Acts at UCLA
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday filed a complaint in federal court accusing UCLA of creating a hostile work environment for Jewish faculty members by failing to adequately address alleged antisemitic actions that occurred during a wave of protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict that erupted following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israeli citizens.
In the pleading, lawyers with the Civil Rights Division asserted:
“Swastikas, calls for the extermination of Jews and…Israel, antisemitic violence, and open harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff: this was the grim scene at …UCLA…beginning in the 2023 to 2024 academic year. Following the October 7, 2023…massacre…, UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to—and at times facilitated—grossly antisemitic acts and systematically ignored cries for help from its own terrified…employees. Activists at the now infamous encampment at Royce Hall physically excluded Jewish students…and staff from portions of campus.”
They continued:
“UCLA is currently under a permanent injunction banning it and its officers from allowing further exclusions of Jews or religious supporters of Israel from campus or activities. That prior action generally sought to protect the Jewish students at UCLA. But the harm to Jewish and Israeli employees at UCLA goes much deeper. The general atmosphere of antisemitism was, and remains, so severe and pervasive that UCLA’s own official Task Force on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias concluded that the University’s failures to protect Jewish staff and faculty constituted a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964….This suit seeks to right these wrongs.”
Pattern of Discrimination
The complaint claims that the Regents of the University of California has “engaged in in a pattern or practice of discrimination against Jewish and Israeli employees at UCLA,” in violation of Section 703(a)(1) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1), “by failing to prevent and correct antisemitic workplace discrimination and harassment…for which employees sought redress or were discouraged from seeking redress.”
They also asserted hostile work environment and retaliation claims on behalf of two named professors, Kamran Shamsa and Ian Holloway, and “other aggrieved Jewish and Israeli UCLA employees.” Holloway, who teaches at the Wen School of Nursing, and Shamsa, a cardiologist with the campus’ medical school, filed discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) between November 2024 and February 2025.
In June, the EEOC declared that there was reasonable cause to believe that the professors were subjected to unlawful discrimination, and the matter was referred to the Civil Rights Division pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §2000e-5(f), which specifies:
“[I]f the Commission has been unable to secure from the respondent a conciliation agreement acceptable to the Commission, the Commission…shall refer the case to the Attorney General who may bring a civil action against such respondent in the appropriate United States district court.”
Examples of Antisemitic Actions
In yesterday’s 81-page pleading, the government cites examples of antisemitic actions during anti-Israel protests, including allegations that “UCLA allowed an antisemitic statue of a pig sitting in a fire pit of flames holding a Jewish star and a bag of money to be displayed for a week” and that “signs [as well as] graffiti…with antisemitic messages” were found throughout the campus during the 2023-24 school year.
Saying that the “environment of antisemitism at UCLA also extended to campus hiring,” the Department of Justice asserted:
“UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council Cultural Affairs Commission (CAC) included in its hiring policies the following language: ‘We reserve the right to remove any staff member who dispels antiBlackness, colorism, racism, white supremacy, zionism,…and any/all other hateful/bigoted ideologies.’ ”
The government also claimed that the medical school was a “hotbed of antisemitic incidents,” pointing to a required lecture for first-year students in which Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia led the class in chants of “Free Palestine,” and that “[t]his antisemitic atmosphere also extended to the UCLA Law School,” saying:
“UCLA Law School professor Khaled Abou El-Fadl…publicly belittled the murder of Jewish babies and [rape of] Jewish women.”
Yesterday’s filing follows the Trump administration’s demand, made last August, that the university system pay nearly $1.2 billion to settle purported civil rights violations relating to complaints of antisemitism by both students and faculty
UCLA Comments
Mary Osako, UCLA vice chancellor for strategic communications, issued a statement yesterday affirming that “[a]ntisemitism is abhorrent and has no place at UCLA or anywhere.” She added:
“UCLA has taken concrete and significant steps to strengthen campus safety, enforce policies, and combat antisemitism in a systemic and sustained manner. We recruited an Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus and Community Safety and made substantial investments to enhance coordination, preparedness, and response. We established the Initiative to Combat Antisemitism with a clear mandate to implement meaningful institutional change. We reorganized our Office of Civil Rights and hired a dedicated Title VI/Title VII officer to ensure professionalized oversight and accountability. We adopted strengthened Time, Place, and Manner policies to protect both free expression and campus operations. And, pursuant to the Frankel settlement, we are providing support to community organizations engaged in combating antisemitism.”
Osako continued:
“These ongoing and long-standing institutional efforts, including clear expectations and a commitment to enforcement, are working. We stand firmly by the decisive actions we have taken to combat antisemitism in all its forms, and we will vigorously defend our efforts and our unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive environment for all members of our community.”
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