News4Jax: “A Florida lawmaker called for Gov. Ron DeSantis last week to push officials to enforce laws that stop protests at the state’s universities that he said support “Jewish genocide.”
The call from Rep. Randy Fine of Palm Bay, the only Jewish Republican member of the Florida legislature, came after a number of protests across Florida college campuses where people either condemned or supported the actions of Israel amid its ongoing war with Hamas….
Fine said he wants all chartered student organizations that encourage or support violence to be expelled and to have their funding revoked.
Students for a Democratic Society in Jacksonville is based at UNF and has held two rallies in support of Palestinians in the past two weeks.
The group’s communications director said Fine’s proposal is trying to silence them.
And one expert said what Fine wants may go against the First Amendment of the Constitution, which says that Americans can not be punished by the government for their opinions.
“It could not be more clear, more basic or more essential to our democracy,” Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Several college groups have called to “free Palestine” and tried to bring attention to the conditions in Gaza that came before Hamas attacked Israel. Some have called on the United States to stop providing aid to Israel and questioned the accuracy of media reports on the Hamas attacks….
In a letter to DeSantis, Fine said “any student participating in the rallies of these organizations must be treated like a student screaming the n-word and calling for Black students to be lynched. They would be expelled.”
Fine said “there have been celebrations of Jewish death across Florida” and mentioned Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Jacksonville along with campuses in Gainesville and Miami.
“These children must not spend one day more surrounded by these animals,” Fine said.
“I am done passing bills. It is time to start using them,” Fine said, citing HB 741 which was signed in 2019 and said justifying the killing or harming of Jews would be treated in an identical manner to how racism on campuses is handled.”