UCLA reaches $6 million settlement with Jewish students and professor over campus protests

The University of California, Los Angeles, reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor whose lawsuit against the university argued it violated their civil rights by allowing pro-Palestinian protesters in 2024 to block their access to classes and other areas on campus.

The settlement comes nearly a year after a preliminary injunction was issued, marking the first time a U.S. judge had ruled against a university over their handling of on-campus demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza.

UCLA initially had argued that it had no legal responsibility over the issue because protesters, not the university, blocked Jewish students’ access to areas. The university also worked with law enforcement to thwart attempts to set up new protest camps.

But U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi disagreed and ordered UCLA to create a plan to protect Jewish students on campus. The University of California, one of the nation’s largest public university systems, has since created systemwide campus guidelines on protests.

How the university handled dispersing the encampment in the spring drew widespread criticism. One night, counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours, injuring more than a dozen people, before police stepped in. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested.

In March, the Trump administration joined the lawsuit filed by the Jewish students and Jewish professor as it opened new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at Columbia University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; Northwestern University and Portland State University.

Last week, Columbia agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination laws and restore more than $400 million in research grants.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation for future agreements.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division found UCLA violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

“UCLA failed to take timely and appropriate action in response to credible claims of harm and hostility on its campus,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The university has said that it's committed to campus safety and will continue to implement recommendations.

"Today’s settlement reflects a critically important goal that we share with the plaintiffs: to foster a safe, secure and inclusive environment for all members of our community and ensure that there is no room for antisemitism anywhere on campus,” University of California Board of Regents Chair Janet Reilly said in a statement.

As part of the settlement agreement, UCLA must ensure Jewish students, faculty and staff are not excluded from anything on-campus.

The $6.13 million settlement will pay the plaintiffs' damages and legal fees. About $2.3 million will go to eight organizations that combat antisemitism, the university said.

A group of 35 pro-Palestinian students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and activists also has filed a lawsuit against UCLA, alleging the university failed to protect those who participated in the demonstrations. Some Jewish students have also taken part in protests on campuses around the country against Israel's war in Gaza.

During the 2014 protests at UCLA, at least 15 pro-Palestinian protesters were injured and the tepid response by authorities drew criticism from political leaders as well as Muslim students and advocacy groups.

FILE - Demonstrators walk in an encampment on the UCLA campus after clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — An international body tasked with governing the Gaza Strip under the next phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire is expected to be announced by the end of the year, an Arab official and a Western diplomat said Friday.

According to the ceasefire agreement, the authority — known as the Board of Peace and chaired by U.S. President Donald Trump — is to oversee Gaza's reconstruction under a 2-year, renewable U.N. mandate.

It will include about a dozen other Middle Eastern and Western leaders, the Arab official and the Western diplomat told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

Also to be announced is a committee of Palestinian technocrats who will run the day-to-day administration of post-war Gaza, they two said. The Western diplomat, who spoke to the AP over the phone from Cairo, said the announcement about this will likely happen when Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet later this month.

The ceasefire deal also calls for an armed International Stabilization Force to keep security and ensure the disarming of the militant Hamas group, a key demand of Israel.

The announcement would be a significant step forward in implementing Trump's 20-point plan for the territory devastated by Israel's 2-year campaign against Hamas.

The shaky ceasefire, which came into effect on Oct. 10, has been tested by outbursts of violence and accusations by both sides of violations of the truce. The first phase of the ceasefire has neared completion, though Hamas is still to hand over the remains of a last Israel hostage called for under the deal.

The Arab official said that talks are still ongoing over which countries will take part in the international force for Gaza but that he expects deployment will begin in the first quarter of 2026.

A U.S. official gave a similar timeline, saying that “boots on the ground” could be a reality in early 2026. The official spoke to the AP on the same condition of anonymity. Axios first reported the anticipated announcement on Thursday.

The Arab official said that “extensive talks” will start immediately with Hamas and Israel on the details of the second phase, which he expects to be tough.

Those talks are expected the tackle the issue of disarming Hamas, a step the militant group has not yet agreed to. The plan also calls for Israeli forces to withdraw from the roughly half of the Gaza Strip that they still control as the international force deploys.

Funding for a rebuilding plan for the Gaza Strip still has not been determined. Some Palestinians have expressed concern over the apparent lack of a Palestinian voice in the body and the lack of a firm promise in the plan that they will eventually gain statehood.

Netanyahu's government rejects the creation of a Palestinian state, and the U.S.-brokered deal includes only a vague provision that a pathway toward statehood may be possible if certain conditions are met.

Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Doha, Qatar, contributed to this report.

Palestinians watch youths riding their motorcycles and ATV on sand dunes in the Al-Zahra area, in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians watch youths riding their motorcycles on sand dunes in the Al-Zahra area, in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in an Israeli military strike, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)