(The Center Square) – Attorney General Ashley Moody is advancing efforts to combat antisemitism in Florida. The latest is a law enforcement training session her office is spearheading to address antisemitism on college campuses after first advancing policies to target them.
“Florida is a law-and-order state, and we have taken extraordinary steps to protect the Jewish community since the October 7th attacks,” Moody said, referring to the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas’ attack against Israel in October 2023. “While law enforcement continues to vigilantly protect Jewish Floridians, we are seeing an increase in reported antisemitic hate crimes. That is why we are hosting a training to help combat antisemitism on college campuses.”
In April, her office is hosting a training program in partnership with the Combat Antisemitism Movement at Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus. It includes content from George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, which “examines Hamas’ history in America and the network’s evolution, tactics, key players and activities, including the roles of Iranian and Hezbollah networks in propaganda, education and campus-related initiatives.”
According to the latest Hate Crimes in Florida report, the number of reported hate crimes in the state increased from one in 2021 to 161 in 2022 to 249 in 2023. The majority of hate crimes included in the report were categorized as racial and religious. The data is based on hate crimes statistics reported through the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
The report reveals “an alarming 94% increase in hate crimes against Jewish Floridians from 2022 to 2023,” Moody said, noting that Jewish and pro-Israel students were increasingly targeted on U.S. college campuses nationwide after the Oct. 7 attack.
After the attack, Moody urged Florida college and university police departments to protect students from hate crimes, advised them about Florida’s zero-tolerance policy and state statute prohibitions against antisemitism and support for terrorist organizations.
As Jewish students continued to be attacked and university leaders failed to fight antisemitism, Florida campuses reported far fewer incidents because Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered that Palestinian groups supporting terrorist acts be deactivated on all campuses, The Center Square reported.
DeSantis also invited Jewish students nationwide to move to Florida, where he argued they could attend classes without fear. He was also the only governor in the country to facilitate rescue missions of Americans stranded in Israel to bring them home as the federal government failed to do so, The Center Square reported.
Last fall, Florida’s Republican U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott introduced a bill to penalize colleges nationwide that allow antisemitism on their campuses. Rubio also called on the Department of Justice to investigate a pro-Hamas group encouraging followers to commit targeted violence against Americans based on their support of Israel, The Center Square reported.
Moody joined a coalition of 26 attorneys general condemning the Hamas terrorist attacks and urged Congress to defund a United Nations agency operating in Gaza that was reportedly employing and giving safe harbor to Hamas terrorists.
Like DeSantis and Rubio, Moody also called for the removal of student visa holders who support terrorist groups. After the Oct. 7 attacks, rallies were held in Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale supporting Hamas, which DeSantis said were “abhorrent. Hamas is a terrorist group that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and commits atrocities to further that end. … Florida stands with Israel as it faces one of its greatest challenges.”
He also called on the Biden administration to follow federal law and cancel visas of Hamas supporters and remove them from the U.S. “Any foreign national marching on our streets calling for ‘intifada’ or celebrating the slaughter of Israeli babies needs to go,” he said.
Moody also demanded that the Biden administration vet “foreign student visa holders and promptly remove any who are found to have endorsed terrorist activity or provided support to foreign terrorist organizations.”
Instead, the president took the opposite approach, prohibiting deportations of certain Palestinians for 18 months as attacks against Jewish Americans continued, The Center Square reported.
Under the Biden administration, Islamic terrorist threats and attacks continued, with more than 50 jihadist cases reported in 29 states, including in Florida, prior to the latest on New Year’s Day in New Orleans.
