Pro-Palestine UF chapter hits Florida with lawsuit over effort to deactivate
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine joined the America Civil Liberties Union, also known as the ACLU, in filing a lawsuit Thursday against State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.
The lawsuit was filed after the chancellor issued a memo on Oct. 24 condemning the chapter’s affiliation with the Operation Al-Aqua Flood, and calling for their deactivation.
“Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” Rodrigues wrote.
The ACLU explained that the lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to block the deactivation order from going into effect.
”Ron DeSantis’ decision to effectively punish local student groups for their association with a national group is a clear violation of the constitutional rights to free speech and association,” the ACLU said in a press release.
“As the complaint explains, the deactivation order violates UF SJP’s First Amendment freedoms by censoring its speech and association, and also runs afoul of the First Amendment’s protection against viewpoint-based restrictions on speech and association,” the group added.
The chancellor’s memo argued that the organization’s “toolkit” to spread pro-Hamas messaging across campuses is a felony under Florida law.
“These chapters exist under the headship of the National Students for Justice in Palestine, who distributed a toolkit identifying themselves as part of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” the memo said.
The toolkit encourages students across the country to hold campus protests when possible. The other suggestions include holding a “sit-in, disruption, or educational event.”
Additionally, the toolkit gave examples for messaging tactics and social media graphics to use when participating in activism.
”As students on a public college campus, we have every right to engage in human rights advocacy and promote public awareness and activism for a just and reasonable solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict” the chapter said.
“We know we have First Amendment rights in school and we’re bringing this lawsuit to make sure the government doesn’t silence us or others like us,” the group added.
DeSantis applauded Rodrigues’ memo and celebrated the disbanding of the student organization in the state during a foreign policy campaign speech.
”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.”
