DeSantis Says GOP Should Be Against Refugees from Gaza

(VitalNews.org) – Presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says that the US should refuse entry to any Palestinian refugees fleeing Gaza amid Israel’s military response to the coordinated attack by Hamas earlier this month, urging fellow Republicans to back this position.

Appearing on CBS’s “Face of the Nation,” DeSantis told the moderator that the refugees from Gaza “should go to Arab countries” and that the US shouldn’t “be absorbing” them. The day prior, DeSantis shared similar sentiments to an audience in Iowa while on the campaign trail, claiming that although “not all” Palestinians are members of Hamas, all of them are “antisemitic” and “voted for Hamas.”

After the mass coordinated attack earlier this month that killed over a thousand people in Israel, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) responded with a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, where the attackers returned with hostages. Some of the hostages taken are Americans. Israel also erected a blockade of the area.

DeSantis isn’t alone in his sentiments that Palestinian refugees should be banned from entering the US. House Republicans also introduced a bill that would bar refugees from Gaza from entering the country, citing growing concern that some of them may align with Hamas and attack the US as an Israeli ally. DeSantis shares the same sentiments, claiming that even if they aren’t members of Hamas, none of them believe Israel has a “right to exist.”

The Florida governor said that any of his critics who are “not willing to acknowledge” that antisemitism is on the rise must have their heads “in the sand,” and that importing more people from Gaza who are taught to “hate Jews” from childhood will cause more antisemitism.

The recent escalation of conflict in Israel is also escalating conflict in Washington, D.C. as both parties show fractures over the issue. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently diverged from many of his fellow Democrats by throwing his total support behind Israel and promising to give them “everything they need” to “vanquish” Hamas.