TAMPA, Fla. — Palestinian rights activists are protesting the Israel-Hamas conflict on college campuses across the country. In Florida, the group Students for Justice in Palestine say it was the target of the university system and Governor Ron DeSantis, and are now filing a lawsuit for first amendment violations. 

The complaint alleges the governor, and by extension, the University system, violated the group’s free speech rights. The court documents point to a deactivation order for the Students for Justice in Palestine group on Florida University campuses.

The group also says they experienced backlash after they were labeled by the governor as being “terrorists sympathizers.” The group is made up of students who say they are showing support for Palestinians caught in the conflict, and not for the Hamas Terror Group. 

One of the lawyers involved in the lawsuit, Omar Saleh, who is the lead lawyer for the Florida branch of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, argues this is a cut-and-dry case of suppressing free speech.

“Students who express their views because its critical of the Israeli government, or because it expresses the need for the Palestinians to be free, it does not make them antisemitic, anti-Jewish, it does not make them terrorists and that’s why this lawsuit was filed yesterday. This is not a Muslim thing, it’s a constitutional thing,” Saleh said. 

Spectrum News interviewed Richard Corcoran, who currently heads up the New College of Florida, but previously served as the Education Commissioner of Florida. He expressed disappointment in Florida colleges for what he calls inaction against the group, something he called an arm of an “absolutely hateful terrorist organization that has no business being on campus.”