Six Jewish students and visitors sued San Francisco State University in federal court Monday, alleging the university and its administrators “have knowingly fostered” an anti-Semitic environment and discrimination against Jewish students.
The civil rights lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, centers on an event in which the campus branch of Hillel, a nationwide Jewish student group, invited Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to speak on April 6, 2016.
The speech was attended by 30 to 40 students and Jewish people from outside the campus and by about 20 student protesters, according to an investigation commissioned by the university.
The lawsuit claims the pro-Palestinian protesters “commandeered the event and shut it down” by using a portable amplifier to drown out Barkat’s speech with allegedly menacing chants such as “Intifada, Intifada” and “We don’t want you on our campus.”
It claims that although school policy prohibits interfering with an event and using an unauthorized amplifier, administrators allegedly told campus police to “stand down” and the police did not stop the disruption.