Governor Ron DeSantis said that college students in Florida have a right to protest the Israel-Hamas War but they should not be allowed to target Jewish students.
His comments came at a press conference in Palm Beach on Monday, April 22, the same day
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum called on colleges
to do more to address a rising threat of antisemitism on campuses across the country.
DeSantis said he'd like to see American students at Florida universities expelled for harassing Jewish students, and an even stricter punishment for international students who do the same.
"I think the students if they're foreign students on visas, their visas should be canceled and they should be sent home. That should just happen,” DeSantis said.
Even though the state doesn’t administer visas, a person’s visa could be canceled if their admission is rescinded.
DeSantis said that, without any kind of repercussion, protests could become increasingly violent.
“And so the students do this stuff, and know there's not gonna be any repercussions. The minute there's repercussions, you will start to see a change in behavior,” DeSantis said.
On Monday,
classes were virtual at Columbia University amidst days-long protests over the war in Gaza. Chabad at Columbia University said protesters told Jewish students to "go back to Poland," in an open letter published on social media over the weekend.
The
Council on American-Islamic Relations and the
Anti-Defamation League have reported rising Islamophobia and antisemitism respectively on college campuses since October, when the war began.
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