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Pro-Palestinian U. Florida activists take plea deal

Both students have been punished by university

Two pro-Palestinian activists have accepted a plea deal for their role in a campus protest.

One of the activists, Keely Gliwa, fulfilled all the requirements for her master’s degree this spring. However, the university withheld her diploma.

Gliwa and “Roseanna Yashoda Bisram, 20, of Ocala pleaded no contest to a single count of resisting an officer without violence, according to court records,” Florida Politics reported. “Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the cases against them would be dropped in six months if they are not arrested again, pay $150 in court fees and donate $150 to specific children’s charities.”

The news outlet reported further:

The pleas from Gliwa and Bisram, quietly accepted by Alachua County Court Judge Meshon Rawls two weeks ago, represent the first resolutions among the criminal cases filed against nine people – including six UF students – arrested on campus April 29 during a demonstration against Israeli violence in Gaza responding to the Hamas attack in October.

Campus police and Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested the nine, who were protesting on a grassy plaza on the campus of the public university.

Bisram received a three-year suspension from the university, as previously reported by The Gainesville Sun. The news outlet previously reported the arrestees had rejected plea deals.

Gliwa is one of nine people arrested for the April protest. She previously appealed the university sanctions against her, arguing she was trying to help an activist leave the protest. Gliwa said the activist was having a panic attack.

The university rejected her appeal of the punishment, which also included a three-year suspension.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which is advocating for Gliwa, criticized the decision. The national free speech group argues Gliwa’s punishment is too severe.

“As a public school, the University of Florida has a duty to mete out punishment in a viewpoint-neutral manner,” FIRE attorney Jessie Appleby stated in an August media statement to The College Fix. “The draconian response from UF and its refusal to reconsider the facts of these cases suggest that these students are being targeted for their beliefs, not their individual conduct. That’s a clear First Amendment violation.”

UF has previously said the students and other activists were given notice to disperse and did not.

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