After receiving a call from Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida’s university system chancellor ordered all of Florida’s state colleges to shut down student groups connected to National Students for Justice in Palestine, an anti-Israel organization.
This is the first ruling on college campus groups since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War. It was delivered in the form of a memo sent to college presidents this week calling explicitly for a “crack down” on any campus events led by the pro-Palestine group due to its “harmful support for terrorist groups.”
“Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” state university system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote Tuesday. The memo said at least two groups will be affected by the order.
National Students for Justice in Palestine is an activist organization that supports “Palestinian liberation” and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement which aims to bankrupt Israel out of existence by persuading the world to refuse to do business with the country.
Florida orders universities to ‘deactivate’ pro-Palestinian group https://t.co/3PiZZ3kbYr
— POLITICO (@politico) October 24, 2023
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This follows an op-ed written two days ago by one of DeSantis’ top allies, Florida state representative Randy Fine, announcing that he was deserting DeSantis and switching to Trump over what he saw as DeSantis’ weak response to campus “antisemitism.”
“I love his words. His actions have broken my heart,” Fine wrote in an op-ed published in the Washington Times. “Until a few weeks ago, Governor DeSantis said almost nothing. And worse, he did almost nothing.”
Fine specifically called out DeSantis for allegedly taking little action to oppose a spate of anti-Israel demonstrations and actions on Florida’s state university campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Fine claims that when he “begged” DeSantis to sign a bill he wrote expanding hate speech laws to include antisemitic speech on college campuses, and when he asked him to enforce the existing bill against Palestine supporters, DeSantis apparently demurred and left it up to colleges to decide.
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