Many people missed it because the conservative media flat-out ignored it, and the world was still in COVID chaos as well, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis not too long ago signed into law a handful of anti-First Amendment laws criminalizing "antisemitism" and "hate speech" against so-called Israel in the Sunshine State. And now, as many who worried about the future implications of these laws are now seeing, DeSantis is using his totalitarian "antisemitism" laws to persecute people in Florida who vocalize their support for the Palestinian people and against their ongoing genocide at the hands of Israel.
A vehement Israel-first politician of the most caricatured sort, DeSantis just ordered the University of Florida (UF) to shut down a pro-Palestine group on campus because its message of support for the innocent civilians of Gaza who are being relentlessly attacked by Israeli forces puts them in "violat[ion] (of) Florida's laws against antisemitism."
Along with the University of South Florida
(USF), UF is being required by DeSantis to deactivate the student group
"Students for Justice in Palestine," meaning it will no longer have
official recognition, designation, and possibly financial support from
these two respective universities.
NEW: Governor DeSantis just ordered the University of Florida and the University of South Florida to deactivate their "Students for Justice in Palestine" groups for violating Florida's laws against antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/Y3B6hLnRJZ
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 24, 2023
Censorship on college campuses is usually a leftist thing
For years, conservatives have been complaining about how American college and university campuses are disrespecting and violating the Constitution by prohibiting certain forms of speech, usually about conservative political issues that the right wing wants to be uttered and heard. Now one of their own, DeSantis, is doing the exact same thing but against Palestine, which sadly is of no concern to many of today's Zionist-influenced "Christians" who, like Israel's government, believe that the Palestinians have no worth, are all terrorists, and that the world would be better off without them – in other words, many pro-Israel people are anti-Christ, in belief and practice.
Jesus Christ never called for genocide against anyone. In fact, His instructions to His people in the New Testament were to go find all the lost sheep, no matter their ethnicity, to build his church – which, in the age of grace, is a fulfillment of Israel at the spiritual level, which is what matters in the first place.
However he chooses to deal with those calling themselves "Israel" in the next age is not the concern of the true believer, who should be supporting Israel by supporting God's true people in the current age (hint: it's not the people calling themselves "Israel" who hate Christians, except to exploit them, and who now want to genocide the 2.3 million people who live in Gaza).
"Nothing says 'America First' like making it illegal to criticize a foreign government!" mockingly wrote Chris Menahan for Information Liberation about how DeSantis, like many other Israel-firsters, is really jumping the shark on this one.
True faith, which is of the true God, calls for treating everyone equally because true Israel now is those who obey Jesus Christ – and not the ones who pay their allegiance to an illegitimate foreign government that is using the "Israel" label as cover to unleash mass murder on innocents.
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world," reads James 1:27. This sounds a whole lot different from the agenda of Israel and its supporters in the current context of Israel's relentless push for war and mass genocide against the people it hates.