DeSantis accuses pro-Palestine students of ‘material support to terrorism’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) accused pro-Palestine students of materially supporting terrorism during a foreign policy speech Friday. 

The 2024 Republican presidential candidate characterized the members of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization as a part of the militant group Hamas’s operation in Gaza and alleged that they materially support the terrorism the group has perpetrated. 

“They are a group which publicly says that they don’t just stand in solidarity with Hamas, that they are a part of what Hamas is doing,” DeSantis said. “That is material support to terrorism, and that is not gonna be tolerated in the state of Florida, and it should not be tolerated in these United States of America.”

DeSantis’s description of the group in his speech came after he praised a move Florida officials instituted Tuesday. 

“We deactivated Students for Justice in Palestine in our Florida University System,” DeSantis said. “So we have been proud what we’ve been able to do as governor, but as we look across the world now we are a nation adrift.” 

State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues directed state university presidents to disband pro-Palestinian student chapters on their respective campuses amid the war between Hamas and Israel.

DeSantis, viewed as former President Trump’s main contender in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, spoke Friday at The Heritage Foundation as a part of the “Mandate for Leadership Series,” where he also had a question-and-answer session with Heritage President Kevin Roberts and Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jekielek. 

Fellow Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy criticized the Florida governor for his move to decimate student chapters.

Ramaswamy said DeSantis is “wrong” to silence those “we disagree with.” 

“My view is that the answer to bad speech is not less speech, it is more speech. And I think it is wrong for us to silence those we disagree with,” Ramaswamy said on The Hill TV’s “Rising” Wednesday.