Opinion: Silencing pro-Palestinian students in Florida universities teaches the wrong lesson
As the world prays for peace amid the widening Israeli-Hamas conflict, this is what activism looks like at Florida’s premiere university under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hyper-partisan reign:
Incendiary voices are welcomed by the powersthat-be only when they’re from one side — pro-Israel and conservative. Liberal pro-Palestinian activism is labeled antisemitic and silenced under the application of state anti-terrorism laws.
No matter how offensive he is, for example, extremist political commentator Ben Shapiro is brought to the University of Florida campus by a student group for repeated appearances. But the also-provocative group Students for Justice in Palestine at UF is accused of supporting terrorism and ordered to disband.
Eleven fraught days after the horrific and deadly Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians — and an ensuing war displacing Palestinians and also taking innocent lives — Shapiro spoke at an official UF venue.
He took a sensitive, complex and evolving Middle East crisis and delivered a simplistic point of view, extending deserved rejection of Hamas terrorism to legitimate
American organizations like Black Lives Matter — and branding people who disagree with him antisemitic.
“If you support Hamas, you are a Jew hater,” Shapiro said at his Phillips Center appearance, hosted by the conservative Young America’s Foundation, which has a UF chapter. “Hamas ought to be destroyed, it’s that simple...The goal of Hamas is clear — genocide against the Jews. Not just genocide against Jews in Israel, genocide against Jews everywhere.”
Hamas did commit atrocities against Israel on Oct.7 that evoked the Holocaust genocide and Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself. But condemning terrorism doesn’t preclude one from also caring about suffering Palestinians caught in the turmoil in Gaza and the West Bank.
Shapiro’s support for Israel doesn’t excuse his vitriol against other minority groups, especially against gays. He has said that homosexuality should be labeled a mental illness — and there has been no hesitation in spending thousands in tuition money on speaking fees, to repeatedly bring him to UF, which has an active gay population.
Liberals don’t want Shapiro on campus, but they’ve had to tolerate him.
Conservatives who dominate state politics, however, aren’t willing to tolerate their fair share of opposition.
ROLE OF UNIVERSITY IN CONFLICTS
Is it the role of a university, especially a highly ranked and research-oriented one such as UF, to pick sides in a complex world issue and veto one — or is it to bring people together in dialogue? Is it to place limits on unpopular speech, as is happening in Florida, or extend the conversation to include historical perspective and foster understanding?
In an ideal world, where educational values count more than politics, dialogue, free speech, and knowledgeable context should be what matters. Leadership in academia shouldn’t be about capitulating and catering to one side, but about thoughtfully helping others navigate troubled waters.
In this respect, UF’s secretly-selected president, former Republican Nebraska senator Ben Sasse, isn’t helping much, though The Wall Street Journal Editorial
Board praised his letter to Jewish Gators, saying it was “a model of moral clarity, compared with the mush from the Ivy League.”
But Sasse’s one-sided support for Israel, with no mention of also-suffering innocent Palestinians, fueled anger among proPalestinian students and Gainesville community activists. Protesters answered him with their own “Dear President Sasse” letter published in the student newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator.
Co-signers — Islam on Campus, Arab Students’ Association and Students for Justice in Palestine — said they don’t take issue with Sasse’s intent to reassure Jews they’ll be protected from acts of antisemitism. But they reject his depiction of students and activists providing historical and situational context to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “weakened by their moral confusion.”
EXPULSION FROM CAMPUS
And now, the ouster of the pro-Palestinian student group only increases the tension.
Alleging that the national SJP supports terrorist Hamas militants — a serious, sweeping charge — DeSantis and the chancellor of Florida’s university system, Ray Rodrigues, on Tuesday ousted the group from the two campuses where it existed, UF and the University of South Florida. And barred them from establishing chapters at any state college.
The drastic action — invoking Florida Statute 775.33 to call the move “a legal obligation to protect students” — seems an extreme breach of free speech. But circumstances are complicated.
It’s true that the national SJP’s “toolkit” for national protests on Oct. 12 — dubbed “a day of resistance” against the Israeli occupation of Palestine — appears to justify the atrocities Hamas committed against innocents.
In the protest instructions, Hamas’ unspeakable violence against innocent children, women and the elderly is downplayed as “resistance in Gaza” and the killings and hostagetaking from a kibbutz and a music concert — internationally considered war crimes — are framed as “a surprise operation against the Zionist enemy which disrupted the very foundation of Zionist settler society.”
It’s radical and can be construed to endorse terrorism.
It can’t be said strongly enough: There’s no justification for terrorism.
But if we abandon founding principles of American democracy, which include allowing dissent and protecting free speech, then the terrorists surely win.
Pro-Palestinian students and their allies have the right to express their views, no matter how unpalatable they may be to Israel supporters, and I include myself among them.
A capable, strong university makes room for all, is a safe space for debate — and is never an instrument to quash freedoms.