Florida Governor Ron DeSantis bans pro-Palestinian group from colleges
Desantis
Florida's university system, in coordination with Governor Ron DeSantis, ordered colleges to shut down a pro-Palestinian student organisation. The group has now been outlawed after its national leadership backed Hamas'attack on Israel.
The State University System of Florida has said that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was to be dismantled as the Republican-led state cracks down on demonstrations on campus that it said provide "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," the system's Chancellor Ray Rodrigues wrote in a memo to university leaders.
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DeSantis is trying to win the Republican Party nomination for the US presidential election in 2024. He has taken a hard line against Palestinians. He has even suggested that civilians in Gaza should be denied water and utilities till Hamas releases the more than 200 hostages taken during the attack on Israel on October 7.
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Desantis' action hasdrawn flak. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has said that DeSantis' actions were unconstitutional and amounted to an attack on free speech.
"Instead of keeping students and communities safe, the government is simply silencing ideas it doesn't like," the group said in a statement, declining to comment on whether it would take legal action.
Administrators at some universities in the US have slammed the National SJP especially after the group called Hamas' attack "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance" and appealed for a "day of resistance" on October 12 by its chapters at over 200 colleges in the US and Canada.
Rodrigues said in his memo that it was a felony under Florida law "to provide material support ... to a designated foreign terrorist organisation."
Tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students have led to harassment and assaults at US universities since the Hamas attack and Israel's subsequent siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
(With inputs from agencies)