The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has launched a civil rights investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the University of California, saying its attorneys believe there is a “potential pattern” of discrimination against Jewish employees at the state’s flagship higher education system.
The investigation is the latest Trump administration action against universities it accuses of allowing campus antisemitism to fester amid a groundswell of pro-Palestinian protest since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that launched Israel’s war in Gaza.
The UC investigation comes after a Jan. 30 executive order in which Trump pledged to “marshal all Federal resources to combat the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and in our streets.”
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations reached a height last spring with encampments, building takeovers and police sweeps. Encampments emerged at the 10 UC campuses, including one at UCLA that turned violent. Counter-protesters attacked the UCLA site, where protesters were accused of using antisemitic signage and chants and of preventing Jewish students from accessing campus walkways.
Protesters have denied that their actions were antisemitic. They argued that phrases such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” are calls for equality and not for the death of Jews. They said that Jewish students joined pro-Palestinian protests and that the ideology of the camps — which did not achieve their goal of getting UC to divest ties to Israel or weapons companies — was anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish.
On Tuesday, President Trump declared on his Truth Social platform that “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests.” He did not define which protests were “illegal,” and 1st Amendment experts said he does not have the power to change free speech rights.
Last week, the Department of Justice said a federal “task force to combat antisemitism” would visit UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley and seven other college campuses as part of investigations into allegations of antisemitic incidents.
The investigation announced Wednesday would determine whether UC “engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin against its professors, staff and other employees by allowing an antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses,” the department said in a statement.
It did not cite specific incidents at UC campuses and did not single out campuses aside from a brief mention of UCLA.
In a statement, a UC spokeswoman said the system was “unwavering” in its stand against anti-Jewish hatred.
“We want to be clear: the University of California is unwavering in its commitment to combating antisemitism and protecting everyone’s civil rights,” said UC Senior Director of Strategic and Critical Communications Rachel Zaentz. “We continue to take specific steps to foster an environment free of harassment and discrimination for everyone in the university community.
Mary Osako, UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, said in a statement that the campus “has been and continues to be committed to combating antisemitism and all forms of hate, which have no place on our campus or anywhere.”
In a statement, Kira Stein, the founder and chair of the Jewish Faculty Resilience Group at UCLA, said she welcomes the investigation.
“Given the documented incidents of antisemitism on campus, and the lack of enforcement of rules to penalize such behavior … a thorough and impartial investigation is warranted at UCLA,” said Stein, an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. “We believe this is essential to ensure a safe and equitable working environment for all members of the university community.”
In the Wednesday statement, Chad Mizelle, acting associate attorney general and the Justice Department’s chief of staff, cited a “disturbing rise of antisemitism at educational institutions in California and nationwide.”
Also this week, federal officials said they were evaluating stop work orders on $51 million of grants to Columbia University — the epicenter of last year’s pro-Palestinian student movement — as part of efforts to “end antisemitic harassment.” The administration is reviewing whether the school should keep receiving $5 billion in federal grants.
UC campuses — as well as USC, Stanford and California State University — have all seen increased reports of antisemitism since 2023.
The department said it would work with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the multi-agency federal antisemitism task force on the UC investigation.
Task force member Leo Terrill, who is also a senior counsel in the Justice Department’s civil rights unit, said in a statement that the post-Oct. 7 landscape has led to an “outbreak of antisemitic incidents at leading institutions of higher education in America, including at my own alma mater at the UCLA campus of UC.”
Terrill said that “the impact upon UC’s students has been the subject of considerable media attention and multiple federal investigations. But these campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish faculty and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of antisemitic hostility and hate.”
The Department of Justice established the antisemitism task force on Feb. 3, saying it was opening investigations at UC Berkeley, Columbia, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern and Portland State University.
The department said the task force would include representatives from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies as it develops. A full list of members has not been released.
Trump’s January order also called on the federal government to “monitor and report activities by alien students and staff” that could lead to visa cancellations.
It cited federal law that bans noncitizens from being in the U.S. if they support terrorism. It did not equate pro-Palestinian protesters with supporters of Hamas, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization.
Still, a White House fact sheet about the order, quoting Trump, made clear the president’s intentions to “deport Hamas sympathizers and revoke student visas.” Trump and administration officials have broadly described pro-Palestinian protesters as antisemitic “Hamas sympathizers.”
Pro-Palestinian protests at UCLA last year were among the largest in the U.S. Internal and external reviews have faulted UCLA leaders for failing to rapidly coordinate a response with Los Angeles police and other law enforcement when vigilantes attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment on April 30 and May 1.
An ongoing federal lawsuit by Jewish students also accuses UCLA of helping to block access to certain campus walkways last spring. And student and faculty pro-Palestinian protesters have sued in state court, alleging the university violated free speech rights when it cleared the encampment.
In addition to antisemitism allegations, there have been accusations of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias at UCLA and other UC campuses since 2023. It is unclear if there is a federal task force on the matter. The Department of Justice under the Trump administration has announced no campus visits or investigations related to those complaints.
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