The DeSantis administration is walking back its plan to ban the controversial group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from state-run Florida campuses.
In late October, state university system chancellor Ray Rodrigues announced he would “deactivate” resident SJP groups at the University of Florida and the University of South Florida, citing the organization’s “material support” for Hamas, “a designated foreign terrorist group.” Rodrigues specifically pointed to a “toolkit” released by the national SJP umbrella group praising the Hamas invasion and demanding student members play a part in the global “resistance” movement. The document featured a cartoon graphic of Hamas paragliders for American chapters to distribute.
“Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: Across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the facade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that total return and liberation to Palestine is near,” the introduction of the document states. “As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization.”
“Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” Rodrigues wrote in a letter at the time. “It is a felony under Florida law to ‘knowingly provide material support…to a designated foreign terrorist organization,’” Rodrigues said in late October.
However, free speech advocacy groups, notably the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), vowed to challenge the measure’s constitutionality, arguing it violated the First Amendment. The pushback ultimately led the DeSantis administration to reconsider its plan.
“These organizations represented to administration that they are not chartered or under the headship of the National Students for Justice in Palestine,” Rodrigues said during a Board of Governors meeting last Thursday. “The constitutions of both organizations, which were submitted by them at the beginning of the school year when they were registered as an active student registered organization, clearly state that their organization is not subservient or under the National Students for Justice in Palestine. Therefore, the universities have not deactivated their university chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine.”
“Additionally, both universities have obtained legal opinions. We have reviewed those opinions, and, in short, they raise concerns about potential personal liability for university actors who deactivate the student registered organization,” Rodrigues explained.
While walking back his earlier plan to bar the group, Rodrigues clarified that the administration is now working with local colleges to obtain “an express affirmation from their campus chapters affirming a rejection of violence, renunciation of Hamas, and commitment to upholding the law.”
“Governor DeSantis and Chancellor Rodrigues directed the immediate deactivation of these organizations that have identified with or vocally supported terrorist groups,” Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s press secretary, told National Review on Wednesday morning. “It is reprehensible to see some university administrators, after the fact, creating bureaucratic roadblocks.”
“We trust that the Board of Governor’s steps are part of an effort to see this directive through. We expect our Jewish students will be free from threats on our campuses.”
SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley. The group’s founder, Hatem Bazian, a Berkeley professor, was a fundraiser for a pro-Palestinian group that once had its assets frozen by the federal government because it was suspected of funding Hamas, according to an Influence Watch report. Bazian, who has a long history of anti-Israel statements and tweets, has also called for an “intifada” in the U.S.
Private universities, including Brandeis and Columbia, have either temporarily suspended or outright banned SJP from their campuses in recent weeks, citing concerns for Jewish student safety, rising levels of antisemitism, and support for Hamas.
“This decision was not made lightly, as Brandeis is dedicated to upholding free speech principles, which have been codified in Brandeis’ Principles of Free Speech and Free Expression,” a letter sent to the college’s resident SJP chapter, explained in early November. “However, those Principles note that ‘The freedom to debate and discuss ideas does not mean that individuals may say whatever they wish, wherever they wish, or however they wish.’”
“The National SJP has called on its chapters to engage in conduct that supports Hamas in its call for the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people. These tactics are not protected by the University’s Principles. As a result, the University made the decision that the Brandeis chapter of the National SJP must be unrecognized and will no longer be eligible to receive funding, be permitted to conduct activities on campus, or use the Brandeis name and logo in promoting itself or its activities, including through social media channels.”
The directive coincided with an op-ed written by Brandeis president Ronald Liebowitz explaining the decision against the backdrop of skyrocketing incidents of antisemitism across American campuses. “Brandeis University is a secular institution founded by the American Jewish community in 1948 to counter antisemitism and bigotry in higher education. So where do Brandeis and higher education find themselves today?” Liebowitz wrote in the Boston Globe.
“Specifically, chants and social media posts calling for violence against Jews or the annihilation of the state of Israel must not be tolerated. This includes phrases such as ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ — which calls for the erasure of the Jewish state; ‘there is only one solution’ — which echoes the Nazi strategy of killing all Jews; and ‘intifada, intifada’ — an incitement to violence against Israeli civilians,” the school’s president elaborated.