Florida Governor and current Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has amped up his ban against pro-Palestinian groups from colleges in the state, after hitting back at his 2024 rival Vivek Ramaswamy who claimed doing so was a “shameful political ploy” and “utter hypocrisy” amounting to a violation of free speech rights.

During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, DeSantis said, “This is not cancel culture,” after he continued to claim that pro-Palestinian groups on campuses “themselves said in the aftermath of the Hamas attack that they don’t just stand in solidarity, that they are part of this Hamas movement”.

This follows after DeSantis ordered two state universities to dissolve chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine for allegedly violating state laws prohibiting antisemitism.

“You have a right to go out and demonstrate, but you can’t provide material support to terrorism. They’ve linked themselves to Hamas … it’s not a First Amendment issue. That’s a material support to terrorism issue,” he said, adding, “Once you hitched your wagon to a group like Hamas, that takes you out of the realm of normal activity, and that’s something that we’re going to take action against. So we believe we’re totally justified within the law.”

In response, a chapter of the University of Florida's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) pointed fingers at DeSantis for downplaying free speech rights by attempting to dissolve it in a move they called “disgraceful”.

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A statement to the state's Tampa Bay Times said, “Governor DeSantis continues to disrespect American values such as freedom of speech to extend his political power,” noting: “To bend the law in this manner shows the utmost disrespect not only to any pro-Palestinian organization but also to anyone who truly cares for political freedom and freedom of speech.”

Selective condemnations

The Chancellor of Florida’s university system, Ray Rodrigues, declared that DeSantis directed the University of Florida and the University of South Florida to disband two campus chapters of the SJP, which came after Rodrigues relayed to the universities that an SJP “toolkit” called the October 7 operation “the resistance” and “unequivocally states: ‘Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement’”.

The letter also relayed that the SJP has “affirmatively identified” that it was part of the operation.

Rodrigues claimed that the SJP is breaching state law, “It is a felony under Florida law to ‘knowingly provide material support ... to a designated foreign terrorist organization’ ... Here, National SJP has affirmatively identified it is part of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood – a terrorist-led attack.”

A recently released op-ed by Randy Fine, the only Jewish Republican in the Florida state legislature, sees that DeSantis said “almost nothing” and failed to act after neo-Nazis assaulted a rabbi and hung signs saying “Gas the Jews” around a year and a half ago.

In return, DeSantis accused Fine of “just trying to create a name for himself”, as he told NBC: “That’s all nonsense ... and don’t give somebody 15 minutes of fame just because they’re letting you try to do a preferred narrative just to hit me. It’s nonsense.”

It's a 'love-hate' thing

DeSantis himself is an outspoken supporter of "Israel" to the extent of sending privately funded weapon shipments to them.

DeSantis' office confirmed on Thursday that he has sent drones, body armor, and helmets to "Israel", adding that the transport was done through a private supplier.

A spokesperson for the governor told US media outlets that the delivery was done following a request by "Israel’s" consul general in Miami, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky.

Jeremy Redfern, the press secretary for DeSantis' gubernatorial office, wrote to Reuters, "At the request of the Israeli Consul General in Miami, cargo planes contracted by Florida were used to transport healthcare and hospital supplies, drones, body armor, and helmets that first responders can use".

However, Elbaz-Starinsky claimed to AP that such a request was never put through. "Nothing went through me," he said, adding, "We were never in communication on any shipments of arms or ammunition. The only thing that I have dealt with sending is medical supplies."