Florida International University Student Gabriela Saldana Charged After Controversial Joke About Benjamin Netanyahu
April 21, 2026
A “JOKE” THAT COULD COST 15 YEARS.
“Netanyahu, if you can hear me, drop some bonbons…”
These are the words that landed 23-year-old Gabriela Saldana, a senior at Florida International University, in handcuffs. What she calls a dumb joke in a WhatsApp group chat, the state of Florida is calling a second-degree felony.
Frustrated with her upcoming Capstone presentations, Gabriela jokingly called on the Israeli Prime Minister to drop some bonbons (which police interpreted as bombs) on the campus convocation center. Within hours, she was arrested, charged with making written threats to kill or do bodily harm, and forced to face a judge.
We live in a world where the word terrorism is thrown around so loosely that a student’s sarcastic venting is treated with the same weight as a credible military threat. While the judge acknowledged it might have been a joke, she ruled that an objective person would see probable cause for a felony.
The Double Standard is staggering. We see actual incitement and calls for violence from political leaders daily with zero consequences. Yet, a young woman’s future is now on the brink of destruction over a text message to her classmates.
We are criminalizing speech and destroying the lives of our youth instead of addressing the real issues at hand.
THE ONE DROPPING ACTUAL BOMBS SHOULD BE THE ONE IN JAIL. not youth.
Source: @5149jamesli
#DaizyGedeon #GabrielaSaldana #FIU #FreeSpeech #Netanyahu
English Script:
Judge Mindy Glazer: It’s unfortunate because I’m assuming she’s a senior going to graduate soon, and now that’s going to jeopardize your ability to graduate.
Seven News reporter: A 23 year old NYU student charged with a felony over messages she wrote in a school group chat. Gabriella Saldana facing a judge Thursday morning. According to her arrest report, this went down in a WhatsApp group chat of about 215 students, where students were discussing an event that was to take place Friday at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center on campus to make their capstone presentations, an FIU police officer read some of the statements in court.
FIU police officer: The exact words utilized was, there’s going to be a bomb in the Ocean Bank Convocation Center, and it’s going to be at Jonathan’s fault, one of the members in the chat.
Seven News reporter: Seven News obtaining some bits of that chat. It seemed the student wanted the event rescheduled and wrote: “Netanyahu if you can hear me, drop some bonbons for us capstone students in Ocean Bank Convention Center”. Other students wrote, they didn’t take that text delightly. She later in the chat wrote, “I wrote a dumb joke that should not have been made.
Judge Mindy Glazer:I can understand your position Miss Corey and you’re saying this is a joke, but to an objective person it’s not a joke. And there would be enough for probable cause. I’m not saying it’s enough for beyond a reasonable doubt. I don’t know what the state’s going to be able to prove at trial, but for purposes of this hearing, I believe there is enough for probable cause.
