More than 30 pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) sued campus officials and several law enforcement agencies, alleging civil rights violations, wrongful arrests and excessive force during demonstrations last year.
A lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles superior court outlines the violence and significant injuries that UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment members experienced at the hands of police and counterprotesters from April to June of 2024.
The complaint accuses UCLA, the country’s top-ranked public university, of negligence during counterprotesters’ “brutal mob assault” against the encampment on 30 April as officials failed to intervene. The Washington Post and New York Times documented how law enforcement allowed hours of unchecked violence against pro-Palestinian demonstrators who, along with college activists across the US, had set up Gaza solidarity camps.
No counterprotesters were arrested that night even though officers witnessed the attacks, which were “broadcast live to millions”, the suit says: “Mob members violently assaulted protesters … breaking their bones, sexually assaulting them, burning their eyes with chemical munitions, punching them, hitting them with metal rods, poles, and boards, and hurling incendiary devices into the peaceful encampment.”
“This was four-plus hours of unmitigated violence while UCLA private security stood sometimes feet away and did nothing to protect the faculty, students and community members protesting genocide,” said Thomas Harvey, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
On 1 May, the following day, UCLA asked the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) and California highway patrol (CHP) to “forcibly remove people expressing pro-Palestinian views”, with officers hurling flashbangs, shooting projectiles at people’s faces, beating and body-slamming protesters and arresting more than 200 of them, the suit says; protesters were still seeking medical attention from counterprotesters’ attacks when police raided.
The suit alleges “systemic anti-Palestinian bias” at UCLA. The plaintiffs include students, faculty, legal observers, journalists and community supporters at the encampment. One is an unnamed Palestinian student who on 30 April was threatened with rape by counterprotesters and sprayed with chemical munitions, reminding her of scenes from her upbringing of “illegal Zionist settlers storming the homes of Palestinians while the Israeli military stood by and watched or even facilitated”, says the suit.
Binyamin Moryosef, a Jewish, Israeli-American undergraduate plaintiff, says he was “violently grabbed” and zip-tied by police during a 10 June gathering even though officers hadn’t ordered dispersal. Another Palestinian-American student also alleged he faced excessive force and suffered long-term shoulder injuries when he was detained that day.
Moryosef, a fourth-year English major, criticized the university for the “silencing of Jewish voices that criticize Israel by erasing them from discussion” at a press briefing on Thursday, saying: “I’ve been struggling to finish my final years here due to the stress and uncertainty surrounding whether I’ll be further punished for practicing my first amendment rights.”
Afnan Khawaja, a student plaintiff who recently graduated, said UCLA “abandoned us to the chaos” during the attacks by counterprotesters, telling reporters: “Then they expected us to return to classrooms, as if trauma could be erased with coursework and syllabus … What is freedom of speech if students cannot speak their mind?”
The defendants include the UC regents, several UCLA administrators, LAPD, CHP and more than a dozen people lawyers have identified as counterprotesters.
Stett Holbrook, a spokesperson for the UC president’s office, said in an email on Thursday that the university was recently notified of the suit and was “currently gathering additional information”.
“The University of California unequivocally rejects all forms of hate, harassment and discrimination. Violence of any kind has no place at UC,” Holbrook continued. “We have instituted system-wide reforms to promote safety and combat harassment and discrimination on our campuses. Our focus remains to maintain a UC that is safe and welcoming to all.”
Spokespeople for UCLA, LAPD and CHP declined to comment.
The complaint was filed amid the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists and colleges, including investigations into 60 universities for alleged “antisemitic discrimination”. The US justice department this week filed documents supporting Jewish students who have sued UCLA for discrimination.
The Trump administration also canceled $400m in grants to Columbia University, saying it failed to stop antisemitism, despite the institution suspending pro-Palestinian student groups and facilitating arrests. Immigration authorities recently detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist at Columbia, even though he is a lawful permanent resident not accused of a crime.
Activists at UCLA and other campuses say universities have made protesters vulnerable to Trump’s attacks through last year’s mass arrests and disciplinary processes. Harvey said he hoped the lawsuit would pressure UCLA to “show some courage and defend against what undoubtedly will be real pressure from the Trump administration to demonize their students, who they know very well are not antisemitic, violent or a threat to anyone”.
Harvey said the suit aimed to expose the truth of what happened on campus, protect free expression at UCLA and secure compensation for plaintiffs and punitive damages: “Everyone should be extremely concerned that at one of the major universities in the world, people were allowed to come on campus and beat and maim and yell racial epithets at people for hours with no effort by anyone at UCLA to stop it … That’s under a Democratic president and Democratic mayor at what many people would think is a liberal university.”
Graeme Blair, a UCLA political science professor and plaintiff, said the university’s handling of protests had derailed students’ studies and careers, delaying diplomas, leaving some with ongoing disciplinary cases and lingering threats of prosecution, and carrying lasting mental health impacts.
“Many individuals experienced life-altering physical injuries, including broken bones, rubber bullet wounds, vision problems from chemical irritants used during the mob attack,” said Blair, a member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, who was arrested on 2 May after he formed a line with faculty in an effort to “protect UCLA students from police violence”, says the suit.
Blair and others have been diagnosed with PTSD, he added: “I see how hard it is for some [activists] to move through the world right now when they still hold these strong opinions about the genocide in Gaza and UCLA’s unwillingness to negotiate with them about divestment while also having these physical and mental scars.”
UC’s president, Michael Drake, last year said campuses “support and protect nonviolent and lawful protests”, and defended designating the Palestine encampment unlawful , saying officials must act when “expression blocks the ability of students to learn or to express their own viewpoints” or threatens safety.
