US Justice Department to investigate antisemitism at University of California
The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the University of California (UC) over concerns surrounding antisemitism at the institution.
The department says it plans to investigate whether UC’s system has been discriminating against professors, staff and other employees who are Jewish by “allowing an Antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses”.
The action was announced on Wednesday by the newly-formed "Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism", which was set up by the Department of Justice in February following Trump’s executive order, "Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism", signed at the end of January.
The Task Force announced last week it would visit ten university campuses which have experienced antisemitic incidents since October 2023, including three UC campuses: the University of California Los Angeles; the University of California Berkeley; and the University of Southern California.
The University of California is the world’s largest public research university system, with ten campuses including UC Berkeley - which has been the site of several protest movements including the genesis of the Free Speech Movement in the US.
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"We were recently notified of the Department of Justice’s decision to initiate a civil rights investigation in the UC system. We want to be clear: the UC is unwavering in its commitment to combating antisemitism and protecting everyone’s civil rights. We continue to take specific steps to foster an environment free of harassment and discrimination for everyone in the university community," UC spokesperson Stett Holbrook told Middle East Eye on Wednesday.
Former Fox News commentator and UCLA alumni Leo Terrell, who is leading the task force, said in a press release that there had been "an outbreak of antisemitic incidents at leading institutions of higher education, including at my own alma mater at the UCLA campus of UC".
Attorney general Pamela Bondi, who was also quoted in the release, said, “This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities.”
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, colour, national origin, sex, and religion. Under Title VII, the US Justice Department has the authority to initiate investigations against state and local government employers where it has reason to believe that a “pattern or practice” of employment discrimination exists.
Other universities the task force will be targeting include George Washington University; Harvard University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota; and Columbia University.
Protests against Israel's war on Gaza swept through university campuses soon after the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have sought to characterise anti-Israel and anti-Zionist protests as "antisemitic", leading to congressional hearings grilling university administrators and law enforcement forcefully shutting down protests on campuses.
In the wake of the political backlash, universities like New York University and Harvard have scrambled to adopt the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism as they come under federal scrutiny.
On Monday, the federal task force announced it was considering halting more than $51.4m in federal contracts with Columbia University due to alleged campus antisemitism. The task force said it would also conduct a comprehensive review of more than $5bn in federal grant commitments to Columbia to ensure the university is in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities.
Since coming into office, US President Donald Trump ordered a pause on federal grants and loans, which has since been blocked by a judge. The Associated Press reported in February that the Trump directive has universities nationwide "scrambling to determine how a funding freeze could affect their research programs, students and faculty".
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