The US government has frozen $584 million in funding for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) over pro-Palestinian activism, dealing a “devastating” blow to the university community.
“Currently, a total of approximately $584 million in extramural award funding is suspended and at risk,” Dr. Julio Frenk, seventh chancellor of UCLA, said on Wednesday.
“If these funds remain suspended, it will be devastating for UCLA and for Americans across the nation,” he added.
The US government alleges universities, including UCLA, Columbia University and Stanford University, and many others, allowed anti-Semitism during long student protests on campuses at higher education institutes over the US-Israeli ethnic cleansing and genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip that began in October 2023.
In 2024, large demonstrations took place at UCLA, some of which turned violent as police cracked down on protesters criticizing US complicity in Israel’s Gaza war.
Student protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the US government wrongly equates their criticism of the Israeli war on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with anti-Semitism, and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
Since the onset of the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, protests, including campaigns, demonstrations, rallies, and vigils, have taken place in the US and beyond to show solidarity with the defenseless Gazans.
Pro-Palestinian activists have condemned the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and criticized the US government’s all-out diplomatic and military support for the extremist criminal Tel Aviv regime.
In response, the US government has launched an extensive crackdown on higher education institutions, freezing federal funding for universities and revoking hundreds of visas for international students.
The funding freeze, which primarily affects grants and contracts from federal departments such as health, education, agriculture, and defense, has raised concerns among university officials and students who particularly fear that the move has put research projects at risk.