Florida Student Arrested For Making A Joke About Netanyahu In A WhatsApp Group Chat
Florida has passed a number of antisemitism laws in recent years.
A student at Florida International University (FIU) was recently arrested and faces multiple years in jail for a joke she made about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which was interpreted as the student making a bomb threat at the school.
The story has not received a lot of attention, save for some coverage on social media and a few alternative media shows.
7 News Miami first reported:
Twenty-three-year-old Gabriela Saldana appeared in bond court on Thursday [April 16th] afternoon after being arrested on Wednesday.
According to the arrest report, Saldana made the threat in a WhatsApp group chat of about 215 students. The students were discussing an event scheduled for Friday at the university’s Ocean Bank Convocation Center.
7News obtained screenshots of the written threat, in which Saldana appeared to want the event rescheduled and wrote:
“[Israel’s Benjamin] Netanyahu, if you can hear me, drop some bonbons for us Capstone students in Ocean Bank Convocation Center.”
In bond court, an FIU Police officer said she also wrote:
“There is going to be a bomb in the Ocean Bank Convocation Center and it was going to be Jonathan’s fault,” which was in reference to another student in the chat.
After it appeared, students in the chat didn’t take the message as a joke. Saldana wrote: “I wrote a dumb joke that should not have been made.”
Appearing in front of Judge Mindy S. Glazer, the judge told her that those types of messages aren’t funny.
“I can understand your position when you are saying this is a joke, but to an objective person, it’s not a joke, and it would be enough for probable cause. I’m not saying it’s enough for beyond a reasonable doubt. I don’t know if the state is going to be able to prove it in trial, but for purposes of this hearing, I believe there is enough for probable cause.”
She faces charges of threats to kill or do bodily harm with prejudice. Glazer said she didn’t find probable cause for prejudice.
Saldana’s bond is set at $5,000.
In a statement, FIU said:
An FIU student has been arrested for making a credible and imminent threat of violence at a planned university event. According to the investigation, the suspect identified a specific date, time and venue. Given the ongoing investigation and federal student privacy laws, FIU has no further comment. There is no further threat to the university community.
In 2024, Governor Ron DeSantis passed a law dealing with antisemitism. HB 187 provides a definition of antisemitism under state law. This definition uses the one set by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Antisemitism in the state is seen as “a certain perception of Jewish individuals which may be expressed as hatred toward such individuals. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish and non-Jewish individuals and their property and toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The group goes on to provide a list of examples that would qualify as antisemitism:
Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:
Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
This same definition of antisemitism was adopted federally via an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last year — a definition that has drawn much scrutiny, particularly with example 9 as the definition appears to be a broad condemnation of Christianity and the story of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under the current administration, announced last year that they would begin screening social media for “antisemitic” posts.
Moreover, in March, the Florida Senate passed a bill to create a “statewide antisemitism task force.” Florida Phoenix reported:
The group would have a range of responsibilities to combat antisemitism in Florida. Among them:
Engage with local Jewish communities and provide public officials across the state with recommendations and support for combating antisemitism.
Identify best practices from efforts to combat antisemitism in other states and jurisdictions.
Evaluate this state’s hate crime statutes and consider whether amendments would better protect residents from antisemitism.
Recommend strategies, programs, and legislation to combat antisemitism in this state.
Access existing state programs related to education in digital media literacy.
An amendment to that bill was added which clarifies that antisemitism “does not include criticism of Israel which is similar to criticism of any other country.”
A sister bill in the House (HB 111), however, did not progress and is currently dead.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Are we serious right now? This is absurd. CLEARLY she was joking, she even admitted to joking in that text chain, after she just got done joking about Netanyahu dropping “bonbons” on the school, which apparently is enough for these people to say that equates to a “bomb.”
Some people even pointed this out online too, referencing a joke that was made in an episode of SpongeBob:
Others have also pointed this out:
“Objective?” “Reasonable?” “Probable cause,” says the judge? So, you’re telling me this random college student is colluding with the PM to drop bombs on a school? RIDICULOUS.
We are living in 1984. Ever since the Patriot Act was signed post-9/11, freedom of speech and the 4th Amendment have been totally non-existent.
Should she have said those things? No, but that is because we are living in a surveillance state that everyone has become used to at this point; but to arrest her and put her through the wringer, and could sit in a prison cell for a long time if convicted, is asinine. If what she did was so severe and that much of a threat, then why is her bond only at $5,000?
Isaiah 59:14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. [15] Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
This is about intimidation and setting an example.
I (and others) have talked about the subtle implementation of Noahide Laws in the United States and around the world, under the guise of a broadly defined definition of “antisemitism.” Saldana is an example of what is to come and will continue to grow around the world, that if you criticize Israel or Jewish practices or something in scripture that an adherent of the Talmud and Kabbalah would find offensive, then you would be guilty under Noahide Law — one of those laws being to establish criminal courts of justice, and another law that prohibits profaning God’s oneness. Well, Jews reject that Jesus Christ is God and the Christ, and therefore under Noahide Law that could be, in extreme cases, punishable by death (typically via decapitation).
Saldana’s messages fell right into the government’s lap because there was just enough there to make an example out of her, and attempt to frighten anyone for saying what she said.
With that said, be careful what you say, where you say it, and how you say it, because we are living in troubled times.
Ecclesiastes 10:20 Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
Micah 7:5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. [6] For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
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Wow, this doesn't sound like America, it sounds like what some other countries do. They probably will drop the charges, after the girl spends thousands of dollars for an attorney.
She doesn’t deserve it.