![\"Ron](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/97faea84df43c72ea84d9fe788c38952d3afb363\/0_260_3600_2159\/master\/3600.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=a39e295a4456e0e8bf8be873861df6d0\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLast week, the DeSantis\u00a0ordered two state universities to deactivate chapters\u00a0of Students for Justice in Palestine, as they had purportedly violated state laws prohibiting antisemitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday, he again justified the measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have a right to go out and demonstrate, but you can\u2019t provide material support to terrorism. They\u2019ve linked themselves to Hamas \u2026 it\u2019s not a first amendment issue. That\u2019s a material support to terrorism issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnce you hitched your wagon to a group like Hamas, that takes you out of the realm of normal activity, and that\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to take action against. So we believe we\u2019re totally justified within the law,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis\u2019s comments come against a backdrop of increasing visible public protests in the US, including on college campuses and in a pattern of civil disruptions. The protests are efforts against the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and a three-week military campaign to destroy Hamas believed to be holding 230 Israeli hostages after a cross-border attack that killed more than 1,300.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Sunday, more than 8,000 people, including women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces in escalating retaliatory strikes across Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine\u00a0(SJP) accused DeSantis of trying to undermine free speech rights by moving to \u201cdeactivate\u201d its chapters, calling the move \u201cdisgraceful\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGovernor DeSantis continues to disrespect American values such as freedom of speech to extend his political power,\u201d\u00a0a statement to the Tampa Bay Times\u00a0read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo bend the law in this manner shows the utmost disrespect not only to any pro-Palestinian organization, but also to anyone who truly cares for political freedom and freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That came after the chancellor of Florida\u2019s university system, Ray Rodrigues, said that DeSantis directed the University of Florida and the University of South Florida to disband two campus chapters of the pro-Palestinian student group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rodrigues\u00a0wrote\u00a0to the universities that a \u201ctoolkit\u201d released by SJP described the 7 October attack on Israel as \u201cthe resistance\u201d and \u201cunequivocally states: \u2018Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement\u2019\u201d.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter contended that the national SJP organization has \u201caffirmatively identified\u201d that it was part of the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also claimed the group is violating state law. \u201cIt is a felony under Florida law to \u2018knowingly provide material support … to a designated foreign terrorist organization\u2019 … Here, National SJP has affirmatively identified it is part of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood \u2013 a terrorist-led attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis also responded to criticism that he supported moves against Palestinian rights group but, unlike Florida senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, had failed to voice sufficient opposition to neo-Nazi protests in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\u00a0recent op-ed\u00a0by Randy Fine, the only Jewish Republican in the Florida state legislature, claimed that DeSantis said \u201calmost nothing\u201d and failed to act after neo-Nazis assaulted a rabbi and hung signs saying \u201cGas the Jews\u201d over a highway overpass 18 months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeSantis accused Fine of \u201cjust trying to create a name for himself\u201d, telling NBC \u201cthat\u2019s all nonsense … and don\u2019t give somebody 15 minutes of fame just because they\u2019re letting you try to do a preferred narrative just to hit me. It\u2019s nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0has amplified and defended his call to ban pro-Palestinian groups from colleges in the state, rejecting claims by 2024 rival Vivek Ramaswamy that such restrictions were a \u201cshameful political ploy\u201d and \u201cutter hypocrisy\u201d that amounted to a violation of free speech rights. \u201cThis is not cancel culture,\u201d DeSantis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":39432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,5304,8348,9204,10387,1425,287,3513,10102,11283,5787,5321,4028,5491,2629,5930,12634,12173,11493,3095,6259,10419,9515,10342,12329,12899,5572,12287,3773,5864,8637,5568,11377,11224,6944,8664,10041,6059,6047,7931,9151,7609,10951,9039,214,6348,5320,594],"class_list":["post-39431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-attack","tag-ban","tag-border","tag-campaign","tag-chancellor","tag-children","tag-culture","tag-desantis","tag-felony","tag-flood","tag-florida","tag-freedom","tag-gas","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-health","tag-hostages","tag-interview","tag-israel","tag-jews","tag-justice","tag-killed","tag-law","tag-laws","tag-marco-rubio","tag-military","tag-movement","tag-nazi","tag-palestian","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian","tag-presidential","tag-pro-palestinian","tag-republican","tag-ron-desantis","tag-speech","tag-student","tag-students","tag-territories","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorist","tag-two-state","tag-universities","tag-university","tag-us","tag-women","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39433,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39431\/revisions\/39433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}