AMCHA INITIATIVE HAILS UCLA ROADMAP REPORT'S RECOGNITION THAT FACULTY AND ACADEMIC BDS ARE DRIVERS OF CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM

Report's recommendations on faculty misuse of university authority echo AMCHA's own findings and call on UC to address the institutional roots of its antisemitism crisis

 

Contact:
amcha@berlinrosen.com

Santa Cruz, CA, May 14, 2026 – AMCHA Initiative today welcomed the UCLA Initiative to Combat Antisemitism roadmap report's recommendations addressing faculty misuse of university authority and the implementation of academic BDS within UCLA and the broader University of California system.

“For too long, campus leaders have treated antisemitism primarily as a matter of student protest or episodic disruption, but that is too simplistic,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, Director of AMCHA Initiative. “We commend this report for recognizing what we've documented for years: that faculty misuse of university authority is itself a driver of campus antisemitism and is a central issue that must be dealt with. When faculty use university authority and UC branding to advance academic boycotts of Israel and 'anti-normalization' campaigns, they transform academic infrastructure into a vehicle for political activism and create exclusionary conditions for many students on campus, including Jewish and Zionist learners. We particularly welcome the report's call to ensure that faculty comply with federal and state laws and UC policies. Faculty should not be using UCLA's name, their department's authority, or university resources to advance BDS or any political agendas, and faculty advocacy groups should be treated as private associations rather than extensions of UCLA. Ultimately, restoring trust in our academic institutions will require action and enforcement – and this is a positive step in the right direction.”

In February, AMCHA released a sweeping report, When Faculty Take Sides: How Academic Infrastructure Drives Antisemitism at the University of California, which found that UC-branded faculty activism, not merely student protest, has been a primary institutional driver of the explosion of antisemitism across the University of California system. Drawing on hundreds of documented incidents, the report shows how faculty and academic departments have used their positions of authority and University platforms to advance a coordinated anti-Israel agenda that has fueled harassment, exclusion and intimidation of Jewish and pro-Israel students. The UCLA report's recommendations directly echo the findings of that February 2026 report.

The report also directly confronts academic BDS, a campaign that, when implemented through university structures as it’s intended to be, restricts academic freedom, chills viewpoint diversity, and excludes Jewish and Zionist students and faculty from full participation in campus life. The University of California has already stated its opposition to academic boycotts of Israel. Now it must enforce that position consistently and systemwide.

AMCHA’s February report found that comparing July 2021-June 2023 with July 2023-June 2025: 

• Incidents targeting Jewish campus members for harassment, intimidation, threats, exclusion, vandalism, and assault rose 3,150% at UCLA following October 7, 2023.
• Incidents involving rhetoric glorifying violence or calling for Israel's elimination increased 1,175% at UCLA.

Faculty and departments were involved in 40% to 60% of these incidents – either as perpetrators, public defenders or institutional enablers.

The report further found that:

• 23 one-sided, anti-Israel events were sponsored by 18 UCLA departments – without those departments sponsoring a single Israel-related event lacking anti-Israel bias. Rhetoric at these events repeatedly condoned terrorism, denied antisemitism, and delegitimized Israel and Zionism. At UCLA, speakers dismissed reports of Hamas atrocities as “lies” and “propaganda.”
• 36 departments at UCLA released official proclamations supporting the anti-Israel encampment – a site where Jewish students faced systemic harassment and demonstrators disseminated antisemitic vitriol, including the exaltation of violence against Jews and Israelis alongside demands for the destruction of the Jewish state.
• UCLA's Faculty for Justice in Palestine pledged to fight for Palestine “by any means necessary,” supported work stoppages, promoted academic BDS, and defended the exclusion of “Zionist” students from campus spaces in federal court.

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AMCHA Initiative is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism at colleges and universities in the United States. The organization monitors more than 750 campuses for antisemitic activity, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the U.S. government. AMCHA is not a pro-Israel advocacy organization, nor does it take a position on current or past Israeli government policies; criticism of Israel that does not meet the IHRA and U.S. government criteria is not considered antisemitic by the organization. AMCHA has recorded more than 11,000 antisemitic incidents on college campuses since 2015, which can be accessed through its Antisemitism Tracker