A Palestinian student was arrested under Florida's new hate crimes law. Then the affair collapsed

A Palestinian student broke down as he watched his classmates at the University of Central Florida (UCF) plant hundreds of miniature Israeli flags in the ground in the heart of the school's campus this year.

Seif Asi21-year-old from Jacksonville confronted the students and accused them of supporting a genocide that killed some of his family members. The heated argument lasted about a minute in a place where students often hold up signs or receive sign-ups at lunchtime.

As he left, Asi said something to the students that would ruin his academic career and make him the first known student at a state university to be arrested for violating a new state law.

“You won't be here when I come back and shoot you,” Asi said, according to UCF police report.

The Jewish students ran to find a police officer nearby.

“I’m Israeli,” one student told UCF police. “I definitely feel more like a target here.”

Asi, who did not own a weapon, appeared remorseful when he spoke to the police officer who witnessed the argument in January.

“The defendant apologized for his behavior and said he knew he should not have made the threat. The defendant stated that his emotions got the better of him and he asked to go apologize to the students he had threatened,” the police report states. “The defendant stated that he was tired of seeing students on campus defending the murder of the Palestinian people. »

Asi, who had been an honor roll student at UCF, was arrested Jan. 23 on three counts of intimidation by making a credible threat to a person wearing a religious article.

Asi's arrest made headlines on Orlando television news and nearly 30,000 people watched the UCF police broadcast. body camera footage on YouTube.

“Were you afraid for your life that something would actually happen?” » the police officer asked the pro-Israeli students, according to the video obtained by Law and crime.

“When someone tells you they're going to shoot you, you usually feel some fear for your life,” one student responded.

“Especially after… he said he supported Hamas,” another student seemed to say.

Last year, Florida lawmakers passed a HB 269, which was part of a series of reforms that included the creation of the religious threat charge for which Seif was arrested. The bill expanded existing penalties, making it a hate crime to threaten or harass someone displaying religious or ethnic symbols.

HB 269 has crossed the Legislature, gaining unanimous support.

“Through this legislation, we ensure that perpetrators of acts of anti-Semitism targeting religious groups or individuals will be punished. » DeSantis said in a statement when he signed the measure in May last year during a trip to Israel.

Asi appears to be the first student at a public university in Florida to be arrested on this charge since the law was passed. The University of Florida, Florida State University and other public universities in Florida have not arrested anyone since the law took effect, the schools confirmed this week. (Florida A&M University and Florida Atlantic University did not respond to Florida Politics in time for this story.)

The criminal case against Asi collapsed this spring.

The attorney general's office decided not to pursue criminal charges because the case could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the spokesperson said. Jason Gunn.

“There are several problems in this case” according to a SAO memo released by Florida Politics as part of a public records request.

“All three victims report hearing the defendant say something like, 'You won't be here when I come back and shoot you.' Rather, it is a conditional threat. Additionally, there is no indication that the defendant targeted these victims based on their religion or ethnicity. Rather, it appears that the accused was angry at the victims' position and their support for Israel in the current conflict. Finally, regarding the credibility of the threat, no weapon was discovered on the defendant's person or among his immediate possessions in his backpack. This case also received some media coverage.

Asi didn't have a criminal record or go to prison, but his life was turned upside down at UCF.

The school suspended him for the spring semester and placed him on probation for the fall 2024 term, according to court records. After the Attorney General's Office dropped the charges against him, the sanction against UCF remained in effect.

Student privacy laws prevent UCF from commenting, school spokesperson says Courtney Gilmartinwho highlighted Florida politics to his 95-page “Golden Rule of the Student” which describes the rights and responsibilities of students, as well as the school's process for educating students.

This month, Asi asked the Orange County Circuit Court to overturn his suspension and let him return to school.

In court documents, Asi accuses UCF of violating his due process rights.

At a UCF disciplinary hearing, a student testified that Asi actually said, “It won't be there when I come back to shoot it” — which Asi said meant he wanted to shoot it. flags, not people, according to court documents. .

The comments were “inappropriate,” Asi acknowledged in court documents, but they were made while walking away from an emotional situation and the Israeli students eventually raised their flags, he said.

With his suspension, the kinesiology senior cannot complete his final spring quarter in time to begin his physical therapy doctoral program at UCF this summer.

“I don’t want to waste my life,” Asi told UCF police, according to body camera footage. “I’m not a political person.”

Asi's lawyer declined to comment for this story.

On college campuses across the country, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has become a hot topic.

“It's not like the '60s, where protests shut down many or most of the college campuses, but it's in the background,” said Roy Guttermandirector of the Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, during a recent panel from the Education Writers Association.

“This is a major global political issue. They still have to go to class, they still want to get good grades, and they still want to graduate and get a job or go to a really good college. Political activism is just another element in their lives.

After pro-Palestinian students rallied on the UCF campus, school administrators updated a policy Tuesday to explicitly ban camping on campus.

The board meeting was streamed live on YouTube and school officials said Wednesday they correct a technical problem since most of the public comment portion was either silent or missing online.

“The amendments you are proposing will never limit us,” one student told school officials: according to the Orlando Sentinel.

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