Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said the Sunshine State would welcome with "open arms" any Jewish students seeking to avoid antisemitism on the country's college campuses.
DeSantis made the comment during his State of the State address in Tallahassee, Florida.
"This week, Jewish students across the country are returning to campuses that have outright condoned antisemitism," DeSantis told state lawmakers. "Over the coming months, they’ll have a tough decision to make. Do they pack up and leave, or do they stay and continue to endure a hostile environment?
"And if they do decide to come to Florida, I can tell you this — we will welcome them with open arms."
The governor said Jewish transfer students would be helped by the waiving of both minimum credit-hour requirements and application deadlines, and by his office encouraging colleges to use their existing statutory authority to provide in-state tuition for students with a financial hardship.
Antisemitism on U.S. college campuses has come under scrutiny since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The issue escalated in early December when presidents from several universities appeared before Congress and failed to say that calling for the genocide of Jews was against their schools' codes of conduct.
"The pro-Hamas activities and rampant antisemitism that we’ve witnessed throughout the country on these campuses has exposed the intellectual rot that has developed on so many university campuses over the years," DeSantis said in his address.
"In Florida, our universities must be dedicated to the pursuit of truth, the promotion of academic rigor and integrity, and the preparation of students to be citizens of our Republic.
"We reject the modern trend of universities that subordinate high academic standards in favor of promoting an ideological agenda. To this end, we have eliminated so-called DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] from our public universities."
DeSantis is battling former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to emerge as the top alternative to current GOP presidential nomination front-runner former President Donald Trump.
Having spent much of the last few weeks campaigning in Iowa, DeSantis returned to Florida and explained how his state took action to support its residents stuck in Israel following the Oct. 7 attack.
"Many Floridians were stranded in Israel after the war broke out and were not receiving adequate assistance from the U.S. Embassy or the State Department," he said, "so we stepped up by organizing evacuation flights to bring Floridians home."
In October, DeSantis said he would revoke the student visas of Hamas sympathizers if he were elected to the White House, The New York Times reported. His administration ordered state universities to ban pro-Palestinian student organizations from campuses and said the Students for Justice in Palestine group supports a "terrorist organization."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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