University of Florida graduation ceremonies continue amid anti-Israel protests
Ben Sasse, University of Florida president, discusses how the college campus is handling anti-Israel protests amid the 2024 graduation season.
University of Florida President Ben Sasse spoke out against the ongoing anti-Israel protests erupting across college campuses all over the country.
Thousands have been arrested this graduation season due to ongoing anti-Israel protests and encampments, some of which have canceled commencement ceremonies altogether.
On CNN’s "State of the Union," Sasse said, "We have time, place and manner restrictions, and you don’t get to take over the whole university. People don’t get to spit at cops. You don’t get to barricade yourselves in buildings. You don’t get to disrupt somebody else’s commencement."
University of Florida President Ben Sasse recently told Fox News that he is committed to free speech and protecting Jewish students. (Fox News)
"What we tell all of our students, protesters, is there are two things we’re going to affirm over and over again: We will always defend your right to free speech and free assembly," the former Nebraska senator continued.
A dozen people have been arrested across three different college campuses in the sunshine state for anti-Israel protests, while nine were arrested at the University of Florida last Monday alone.
"I ran by our group of protesters waving their Palestinian flag; we protect their right to do that. But we have rules. And one of those rules is we don’t allow camping on campus," the university president added. "It’s to help them get into compliance with the rules. They can protest. They can try to persuade people, but they don’t get [to] build a camp. Nobody else does either."
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Students at the University of Central Florida take part in a campus protest against the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza in Orlando, Florida, United States on April 26, 2024. (Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images)
When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he would be open to some of the protesters' requests, Sasse said that the University of Florida doesn’t "negotiate with people who scream the loudest."
"We believe in the right to free speech. We believe in the right to free assembly, and you can try to persuade people," he said. "But what you see happening on so many campuses across the country is instead of drawing the line in speech and action, a lot of universities bizarrely give the most attention and most voice to the smallest, angriest group, and it’s just not what we’re going to do here."
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Entrance of University of Florida's Warrington College of Business in Gainesville. ((Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images))
Sasse’s statements regarding the anti-Israel protests across the state of Florida and throughout the nation echo the sentiments of the university’s Associate Vice President Of Communications, Steve Orlando. Last week, Orlando’s statement declared, "This is not complicated: The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children - they knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences."
The University of Florida responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment with a link to a ‘Wall Street Journal’ op-ed written by Sasse.
"Parents are rightly furious at the asinine entitlement of these activists and the embarrassing timidity of many college administrators," he wrote. "Young men and women with little grasp of geography or history—even recent events like the Palestinians’ rejection of President Clinton’s offer of a two-state solution—wade into geopolitics with bumper-sticker slogans they don’t understand. For a lonely subset of the anxious generation, these protest camps can become a place to find a rare taste of community. This is their stage to role-play revolution. Posting about your 'allergen-free' tent on the quad is a lot easier than doing real work to uplift the downtrodden."
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