Ron DeSantis defended his calls for the disbandment of Florida chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), accusing the groups of providing material support to terrorists, days before announcing he’d arranged to send munitions to Israel.

SJP’s national chapter issued a toolkit calling on state chapters to stage a national day of resistance in response to Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7. An introduction to various resources in the document characterizes Hamas as a resistance group rather than a terrorist organization.

“[On] Oct 8th at 12pm ET, Israel has murdered 320 Palestinians and left over 2,200 others injured. Despite this, our people choose resistance over negotiated cages on our homeland. Fearlessly, our people struggle for complete liberation and return,” SJP noted in the toolkit.

Weeks later, Chancellor of the State University System of Florida, Ray Rodrigues, responded to pressure from DeSantis and issued a letter to the 12 university presidents overseeing state schools, ordering SJP groups on Florida campuses to “deactivate.”

“Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” the letter said.

In the letter Rodrigues said it was a felony under Florida law to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Under the law, material support can be anything from money and lodging to weapons and transportation. It also claimed that SJP, which has two active chapters in Florida, had identified itself as part of a terrorist-led attack in its toolkit.

Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Florida called the chancellor’s move “disgraceful” in a statement reported by the Tampa Bay Times. The group later told the newspaper that DeSantis’ calls contradict American values like freedom of speech. The chapter has continued to hold demonstrations despite Rodrigues’ letter, which legal experts have questioned.

“To bend the law in this manner shows the utmost disrespect not only to any pro-Palestinian organisation, but also to anyone who truly cares for political freedom and freedom of speech.” SJP said.

But, DeSantis doubled-down in an interview with NBC Sunday, claiming that SJP had openly aligned themselves with a terrorist group.

“This is not cancel culture. This group, they themselves said, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack, that they don’t just stand in solidarity, that they are part of this Hamas movement,” the Republican governor said. “You have a right to go out and demonstrate, but you can’t provide material support to terrorism. They’ve linked themselves to Hamas. And so we absolutely decertified them. They should not get one red cent of taxpayer dollars.”

DeSantis’ efforts to ban certain speech and academic material on college campuses have been successful in the past. Earlier this year, he launched a campaign to eliminate “wokeness.” Within a few months, DeSantis appointed hand-picked leadership at New College of Florida, a small liberal arts college in Sarasota with a significant LGBTQ+ population, replacing the college’s Board of Trustees with conservative appointees who later fired the college president in favor of a Republican politician. They also eliminated the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, which oversaw the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Students at the university warned that the takeover could be a glimpse into America’s future, as DeSantis continues his pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination.