A woman scheduled to graduate this month from UCLA sued the University of California Regents Monday, alleging the university did not protect her and other Jewish students and faculty members from what the suit labels "campus terrorists'' during recent campus protests over Israel's military efforts in Gaza.
Liana Nitka's Los Angeles Superior Court proposed class-action lawsuit alleges civil rights violations, negligence, assault battery and breach of contract. She seeks compensatory damages as well as court orders eliminating the creation and sponsoring of a "dangerous condition of public property'' as well as preventing outside funding by antisemitic groups and organizations who require the university to "march to beat of an antisemitic drummer as opposed to the laws forbidding antisemitism and discrimination.''
UCLA Jewish student and faculty members "share the same common interest of wanting to be safe and free from campus terrorism and antisemitism and safe and free from other harm, including assault and battery,'' the suit states.
A UC representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
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According to the suit, the encampment of "campus terrorists'' who set up tents on the grounds of UCLA intended to "create and sow division through acts of disruption, chaos and dissension'' on campus.
The hoax of a peaceful protest was "enabled by and perpetrated under the university's watchful eyes to such an extent that the Jewish students and faculty were so fearful for their lives and safety that they could not go into the university's town square or anywhere else on campus without being verbally or physically assaulted by the campus terrorists,'' according to the suit.
Hamas-leaning faculty members offered extra credit and better grades for those who took part in the "chaos and disruption caused by the campus terrorists,'' all with the university's knowledge and consent, the suit alleges.
Nearly half of the protesters were "paid outside agitators'' funded by wealthy Democratic donors, including the Soros Foundation, the complaint further alleges.
According to Nitka's diary, a portion of which is included in the suit, during her Chicano studies class last fall her professor was "blatantly attacking Zionist identity during class, even though the course subject does not align with the topic of the Israel-Palestine conflict.''
In March, a large figure of a pig depicting Jews and Zionists was placed near the entrance of one of the engineering buildings, Nitka said.
