DeSantis: Canceling Pro-Palestine Student Group a ‘Terrorism Issue’

Rebuking the position of his Republican presidential opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told “Meet the Press” on Sunday that cutting funding of a pro-Palestine student group from Florida state colleges was a “material support to terrorism” issue, not a matter of canceling one’s right to free speech.

“This is not cancel culture,” DeSantis told moderator Kristen Welker, responding to Ramaswamy’s statement. “This group, they themselves said in the aftermath of the Hamas attack that they ‘don’t just stand in solidarity,’ that they ‘are part of this Hamas movement.'”

“And so, yeah, you have a right to go out and demonstrate; but you can’t provide material support to terrorism. They’ve linked themselves to Hamas. And so we absolutely decertify them … That’s not a First Amendment issue. That’s a material support to terrorism issue,” DeSantis stated.

Earlier, Ramaswamy, in a statement posted on X, maintained that “you can’t recharacterize someone’s speech … as material support for a terrorist group.” Doing so, he contended, conflates free speech with providing aid to terrorists.

At the center of the controversy is the National Students for Justice in Palestine “toolkit.“

The toolkit posits the stance that its group identity is inextricably tied to the “resistance” and not as a mere ally of the “resistance.”

“We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement,” the toolkit reads.

Following the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, the group wrote in the toolkit: “Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance.”

Nonetheless, and without any investigations of state or federal capacity, it could not at this time be determined if the student organization provided direct material support to Hamas.