Florida’s Legislature Passes Bill Banning Speech in Schools that Is Critical of Israeli Government



A bill in Florida, waiting for the signature of Governor Ron DeSantis, requires public schools, including universities and colleges, to treat anti-Semitism as discrimination, and anti-Semitic speech and acts as racist. The bill conflates criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism. It identifies anti-Semitism, and only anti-Semitism, as an example of discrimination, ignoring all others. -GEG -GEG

The Senate Monday may have given Gov. Ron DeSantis the perfect
agenda-sweetener for his Florida Cabinet meeting next month in Jerusalem
– a signing ceremony for a new Florida law requiring public schools to
treat anti-Semitism as discrimination, and anti-Semitic speech and acts
as racist speech and acts.

The Florida Senate unanimously approved
House Bill 741 with all 39 members on the chamber floor Monday signing
on as co-sponsors.

HB 741 – approved by the House 114-0 on April
11 – was substituted for its Senate companion bill, Senate Bill 1272,
which had only progressed through one committee, on the Senate floor and
adopted after senators consented to waive procedural rules to
accelerate its passage.

After
it is formally enrolled, the bill goes to DeSantis for the governor’s
signature. He has 10 days to sign or veto any bill once it crosses his
desk; approved bills left unsigned and un-vetoed still go into effect 10
days after transmittal.

In other words, DeSantis could
ceremoniously sign it during his May 25-31 trip to Israel which will
include a Florida Cabinet meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem,
likely sometime between May 28-30.

The Senate moved to introduce
HB 741 Monday morning two days after a shooting at a San Diego-area
synagogue and six months after the deadly mass shooting at a Pittsburgh
synagogue.

GOP State Chairman Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who
sponsored SB 1272, cited both attacks in describing why the measure is
necessary to ensure students are properly educated.

“Anti-Semitism
is on the rise, and we have the ability to do something about it. No
one is born with hate in their heart,” Gruters said.

The fact that
the Poway synagogue gunman is 19-years-old – recently emerged from 13
years of public school education – shows “our education system has
failed,” he said.

“If we don’t do something now,” Gruters
continued, “it will only get worse. I believe when the history books are
written, it will be known that on this day, in this chamber, and at
this moment, we made a statement against hatred.”

HB
741, sponsored by Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, amends the Florida
Educational Equality Act to add religion to the list of categories for
which discrimination is prohibited, and adopts a 2017 definition of
anti-Semitism encoded by the Miami-Dade County city of Bal Harbour and
endorsed by the U.S. State Department.

Fine filed HB 741 in
February as a response to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
movement which he says is orchestrating anti-Israel campaigns using
anti-Semitic tactics.

Under the bill, the BDS movement is defined
as a terrorist group no different than the KKK or ISIS, which has
prompted some to question if criticism of the Jewish state could be
mischaracterized as being anti-Semitic criticism of the Jewish people.

HB
741 also amends Florida’s hate crime statute to specifically include
anti-Semitism, which it defines “as a perception of the Jewish people,
which may be expressed as hatred toward Jewish people,” through such
acts as:

  • “Calling for, aiding, or justifying violence against Jews.
  • “Alleging myths about a world Jewish conspiracy or that Jews control the media, economy, government, or other institutions.
  • “Accusing
    Jewish people as a whole of being responsible for real or imaginary
    wrongdoing by a single Jewish person, group, or the state of Israel, or
    for acts of non-Jews.
  • “Accusing the Jewish people of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
  • “Accusing Jewish citizens of countries other than Israel of being more loyal to Israel than their own nations.
  • “Demonizing, applying a double standard to, or delegitimizing Israel.”

Senate
Minority Leader Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, was the only lawmaker to
cast a negative ballot against the measure during its committee rounds,
objecting to potential freedom of speech challenges – which it is
likely to draw – in SB 1272’s one and only committee hearing.

For
that, Gibson was vociferously skewered by Republicans and Democrats and,
within two days, had issued change-of-heart statements.

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