REDINGTON SHORES, FL—Governor Ron DeSantis slammed Ivy League universities for allowing pro-Palestine protesters to harass and bar Jewish students and professors from entering classrooms, calling administrators "weak" and "scared".
"When you're chasing Jewish students around, and when you're not letting a Jewish professor enter a building, and you're targeting people like that, that's not free speech; that's harassment that violates appropriate conduct," DeSantis said Wednesday morning.
"And yet at Columbia, at Yale, those folks rule the roost—they do whatever they want. And these administrators and the presidents of these universities are weak. They're scared and they don't do anything," he continued.
The Governor's comments follow a Rabbi pleading with Jewish students at Columbia University to go home for the rest of the semester out of concern for students' safety. Meanwhile, a viral video at Yale surfaced on X, demonstrating pro-Palestinian protesters surrounding and blocking a Jewish student from entering the University.
.@GovRonDeSantis reiterates his position on pro-Hamas supporting American college students, says they should be expelled
They were triggered >> https://t.co/fM0R0zQoxThttps://t.co/Z6HxfTl9aC#Flpol #ColumbiaUniversity pic.twitter.com/PV0c5Ejvq5
— The Floridian (@Floridianpress) April 24, 2024
As tensions rage, student protesters set up tent encampments on and near campus, though university heads have demanded the camps be disbanded in the next 48 hours. In the meantime, dozens of protesters have been arrested at Columbia, Yale, and NYU.
"You do that in Florida at our universities, we're showing you the door—you're going to be expelled when you're doing that stuff," DeSantis said. "The minute people start to face consequences, you are not going to see this nonsense going on."
DeSantis condemned the "ideological pride addiction" he said student protesters exemplified, citing the "pro-Hamas protesters taking over bridges and roads".
"You don't have a right to do that. They tried to do that in Miami, and what happened in 10 minutes? They go dragged off the road where they belong," he said, referencing a protest outside Bayside Marketplace last week.
