Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Gaza prompted a particularly disgusting strain of xenophobia from Republican politicians.
Here’s one example: A group of House Republicans has put forth a bill that would flat out ban Palestinians from entering the country. The bill seeks to not only bar anyone with a Palestinian passport from receiving a visa, but also deem them ineligible for admission to the United States altogether. It’s dubbed the Guaranteeing Aggressors Zero Admission — or GAZA — Act. Funny!
Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., also suggested on social media that President Joe Biden was partly to blame for Hamas attacking Israeli civilians, because his administration has given “$650 million to Palestinians since 2021, including in Gaza where Hamas rules.” He didn’t mention, of course, that the $650 million was humanitarian assistance for things like schools, hospitals, food and emergency shelter, or that the actions of Hamas do not make Palestinian civilians undeserving of support.
GOP presidential candidates haven’t hesitated to say that Palestinians aren’t welcome here either. Former President Donald Trump is back to pushing his Muslim travel ban, spouting anti-immigrant garbage that makes it feel like 2016 all over again.
At a recent campaign event, Trump said he would add Gaza to the list of places under his travel ban if he becomes president again. He also pledged to implement an ideological screening for immigrants, saying that those who “empathize with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists” and anyone who is a “communist, Marxist or fascist” should be denied entry to the United States.
You might think to yourself, “Surely Republicans wouldn’t suggest that all Palestinians are evil. That would be ridiculous!” Unfortunately, that’s exactly what some of them appear to be doing.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has baselessly claimed that people living in Gaza “are all antisemitic” and “none of them believe in Israel’s right to exist,” so therefore the United States should turn them away.
“In Gaza, they teach the kids to hate Jews. … This is embedded in the culture,” DeSantis said in a recent interview.
It only gets worse. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina even went so far as to say that foreign students protesting against Israel should be “sent back to their country,” not even bothering to distinguish between criticizing Israel and openly supporting Hamas. What happened to the First Amendment? Trump has pushed a similar proposal, vowing to revoke the student visas of “radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners” and proactively send immigration officials to protests in order to deport participants.
The idea of keeping terrorists out of our country may not seem so bad on its face. The problem is that most of those accused of actively supporting terrorists or even being terrorists themselves aren’t guilty of either of those things. Many Republicans — and Democrats — wrongfully conflate support for the Palestinian people and criticism of Israeli military actions with support for Hamas or hatred of Jews.
The other problem, of course, is that denying all Palestinians admission to the United States as a means of keeping out “aggressors” or “terrorists” perpetuates a dangerous narrative. It suggests that we should hold Palestinians as a whole responsible for the actions of Hamas, and that because some terrorists are Palestinian, then all Palestinians must be a threat. It’s racist and xenophobic.
Just as we rightfully condemn violence and hatred toward Jews, we must also condemn this blatantly Islamophobic rhetoric. While Jewish communities fear an uptick in violence, threats against Muslim Americans have also reportedly risen amid recent events. A 6-year-old boy in Illinois was recently killed after he and his mother were stabbed more than a dozen times in an apparent anti-Muslim hate crime.
Politicians like Bishop and Trump like to disguise their nativism as patriotism, suggesting that all of this bigotry is really about loving and protecting America. That’s because to them, apparently, America should be a country that turns away those in need, punishes those who voice certain beliefs and clings to the vestiges of white supremacy. No, thank you.
Paige Masten is a columnist for The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer .
