Introduction
As a Task Force convened and charged to report to the EVCP on matters relating to Anti-
Palestinian, Anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab racism at UCLA, we submit the following report documenting the racism and violence directed at Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs and anyone, including Jews, who express opposition to the war in Gaza and in defense of Palestinian rights.
The racism and violence we document includes not only long-standing incidents of harassment
and punitive actions taken against faculty and students for their support of Palestinian rights but
the recent violent attacks from counter protesters on the Palestine Solidarity Encampment, the
university’s utter failure to protect the students under attack, and the violence perpetrated by
police who at the administration’s behest cleared the encampment by injuring, detaining and
arresting peaceful protesters. Finally, the administration has yet to grant student protesters
amnesty, offer to cover medical expenses for the injuries they sustained at the hands of counter
protesters and the police, and protect their fundamental right to engage in peaceful protest. In this
report we describe the racism and violence directed at Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs and
defenders of Palestinian human rights, including many Jews, and we narrate our Task Force’s
attempts to bring the racism and violence to your attention, efforts that have largely been
ignored.
The escalating crisis UCLA faces at the moment is the result of failed leadership as well as the
administration’s consistent anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and Arab racism and pro-Zionist bias.
These problems did not begin with the administration’s response to the Palestine Solidarity
Encampment, or with efforts to stifle academic freedom on our campus, or with the start of
Israel’s war on Gaza. The issues we address in this report and during our tenure as a Task Force
have persisted for well over a decade.
We begin by reminding the administration how and why the Task Force came about in the first
place—not codes of conduct, not bad behavior, not even campus safety, per se. Rather, the
ongoing genocide in Gaza. As we prepare this report, Israel’s invasion of Rafah has begun; the
death toll continues to rise; there is no medical infrastructure left; the international community
has come to recognize that what is happening in Gaza now is clearly genocide. This urgency
remains. And this is why students risked so much to create a non-violent encampment on Royce
Quad. As this report will show, they have faced horrific physical and psychological violence for
protesting non-violently. We charge the administration with not only failing to keep students safe
but taking actions that put them in harm’s way.