Jewish Students’ Civil Rights Suit Dismissed
A lawsuit filed by two Jewish students against a California university, alleging that the university did not protect them from anti-Semitic attacks, has been dismissed.
The plaintiffs said that they and other Jews were harassed during the annual Apartheid Week event at the University of California, Berkeley, held by Muslim student groups to protest Israeli policies.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg ruled late last week that there was no evidence that university officials violated the Jewish students’ rights, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The ruling stated that the conduct of the Muslim students fell under the category of “pure political speech,” which is constitutionally protected, according to the newspaper.
The complaint alleged that the Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association, another pro-Palestinian group on campus, harass and attack Jewish students, and that the university knows about it and has not taken sufficient steps to protect its Jewish students.
The complaint further charged that university officials have tolerated “the growing cancer of a dangerous anti-Semitic climate on its campuses” that violates the rights of Jewish and other students “to enjoy a peaceful campus environment free from threats and intimidation.”
The suit called for damages and a jury trial.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
