Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday directed university leaders to clamp down on pro-Hamas groups on Florida’s campuses.
Florida’s State University System moved to deactivate student chapters of a group known as “Students for Justice in Palestine,” of SJP.
DeSantis pushed the SUS to act after it became public that the group distributed a “toolkit” that encouraged its members to aid Hamas in their Operation Al-Aqsa Flood terrorist attacks against Israelis.
The “toolkit,” included a statement saying, “We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement. This is a moment of mobilization for all Palestinians. We must act as part of this movement. All of our efforts continue the work and resistance of Palestinians on the ground.”
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In a letter to university presidents, SUS Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote, “During a holy Jewish holiday, the recognized terrorist organization, Hamas, launched an unprovoked attack on Israel — among those killed were babies, women, and elderly. To date, approximately 1,400 Israelis have been killed, including 31 American citizens.”
Accordingly, SJP’s support for the attack violated Florida law, which prohibits people from providing “material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.”
In the letter, Rodrigues noted that the National SJP has affirmed its involvement in supporting Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and that the SJP chapters active on two campuses “must be deactivated” for following that lead.
According to the Washington Examiner, which reported on Rodrigues’ letter, the SUS did not identify the schools. But, the Examiner added, a chapter at the University of Florida issued a statement on Oct. 10, three days after Hamas’ attacks, that declared its “full support of Palestinian liberation.” The UF SJP statement also argued that the attacks were a “response to decades of oppression and inhumanity.”
Rodrigues added that the SUS would use “all tools at our disposal to crack down on campus demonstrations that delve beyond protected First Amendment speech into harmful support for terrorist groups.”
“These measures,” he added, “could include necessary adverse employment actions and suspensions for school officials.”
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