State orders pro-Palestine groups at universities to shutdown

Gov. Ron Desantis has ordered a “crackdown” on pro-Palestine groups on Florida college campuses.

In a memo sent to university leaders, the decision was made to prevent “harmful support for terrorist groups” like Hamas on-campus events led by pro-Palestinian organizations.

In the memo, State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues had ordered the cancellation of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, saying the organization released a toolkit to support Palestine before the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, saying they are “part” of the resistance.

“During a holy Jewish holiday, the recognized terrorist organization, Hamas, launched an
unprovoked attack on Israel—among those killed were babies and women,” said Rodrigues.

DeSantis and Florida’s only Jewish Republican state lawmaker, Rep. Randy Fine, had pressed university leaders to penalize anti-Israel dissent on campuses across the state.

Fine applauded the decision to shut down the SJP chapters; however, he critiqued DeSantis for not acting sooner with the decision. Since then, Fine has shifted his presidential nominee endorsement from DeSantis to candidate Donald Trump.

“Why did it take me endorsing [Trump] to get you to take action?” said Fine. “I gave you all of this on Oct 9. I have the texts. All I got back was a bunch of handwringing.”

The disbanded SJP chapters are allowed to form new student groups as long as it complies with Florida laws and university rules.