(Headline USA) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week that he was banning a radical pro-Palestinian student organization from the state’s university system, accusing it of supporting terrorism.
DeSantis and the State University System of Florida said that Students for Justice in Palestine—which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and whose national leadership came out in support of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel—will be dismantled statewide.
“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 letter to university leaders.
SJP is active in at least two Florida universities: the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Rodrigues noted SJP’s support of Hamas may even be a criminal offense.
“It is a felony under Florida law to ‘knowingly provide material support … to a designated foreign terrorist organization,’” the memo said.
After Hamas’s attack, SJP’s national arm praised it as “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance” and called for a “day of resistance” on Oct. 12 by its chapters.
National SJP also made it clear that pro-Palestinian students are not separate from Hamas.
“Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement,” they said in a statement.
DeSantis has taken a hard line against pro-Palestinian efforts, vowing to cancel student visas and deport anyone in the U.S. who supports Hamas if he is elected president in 2024.
He has also authorized up to $50 million for open-ended charter flights to help Floridians in Israel return to the U.S.
“There are more than 20,000 Americans, including Floridians, in Israel who wish to return home but are unable to do so,” the governor’s director of communications Jason Mahon said.
Mahon went on to blast the Biden administration for not organizing its own rescue flights.
“Unlike the governments of other countries, the Biden Administration has failed to launch any form of rescue or evacuation operations for Americans, including Floridians, stranded in the region, and has failed to provide information requested by the state of Florida,” he said.
