DeSantis: U.S. Can’t Absorb ‘Antisemitic’ Palestinian Refugees, Arab Nations Should

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a meet and greet
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
Joshua Klein

In the wake of events unfolding in the Gaza Strip, Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis firmly stated his opposition to allowing “antisemitic” Palestinians from Gaza to seek refuge in the United States as he blasted pro-Hamas demonstrations and declared, “If you hate America, you shouldn’t come to this country.”

DeSantis expressed strong views about not accepting people from Gaza during campaign events this weekend, following speculations over the fate of displaced Palestinians.

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“We cannot accept people from Gaza as refugees in this country. I am not gonna do that,” he said at a rally in Iowa.

“If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic,” he added. “None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”

A poll from March carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, revealed that the vast majority of Palestinians — nearly three-quarters — supported the murder of two unarmed Israeli brothers by terrorists the previous month, while nearly seventy percent expressed support for the creation of armed terrorist groups to attack Israel.

A previous poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) revealed that a whopping 93% of Palestinians hold antisemitic beliefs.

The Republican presidential hopeful highlighted the absence of Arab states welcoming refugees from the region and implied they should be responsible for offering support.

“None of the Arab states are willing to take any of them. The Arab states should be taking them if you have refugees,” he said. “You don’t fly people and import them into the United States of America.”

“So we’re gonna be very strong on that,” he added.

He also pointed to recent pro-Palestinian protests that have seen a series of demonstrations in the U.S. slamming America, calling for the destruction of Israel, and supporting Hamas.

“I think about our country, you see these demonstrations supporting Hamas in the United States of America. How did we to the point where people are out there doing that? You get reports of babies being murdered, all this other stuff, and your first instinct is to go out and praise the terrorists who perpetrated that?!” he exclaimed.

“You have students at Harvard signing letters praising Hamas for doing it? We’ve got some serious problems in this country,” he added, noting that until now, “we’ve allowed a lot of these problems to fester.”

The Florida governor criticized demonstrations in the U.S. that appeared to support Hamas and asserted, “If you don’t like this country, if you hate America, you should not come to this country.” 

“We’ve got to start being smart about this,” he added.

Speaking to an audience of caucusgoers at an event in the Buckeye State, DeSantis further explained that Arab countries, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, should step up their efforts to assist Palestinian Arabs and criticized Hamas for using individuals as human shields during Israel’s military operations.

“I think the Arab nations should absorb anybody leaving Gaza. We cannot be absorbing people coming from Gaza to the United States of America,” he said. “All those Arab countries, for years, have not done anything with respect to helping Palestinian Arabs.”

Calling it “time for them to step up,” DeSantis urged Arab states to “open the gates” and “help out.”

“We cannot import [them] to the United States,” he reiterated. 

The matter comes as Israel has massed forces, tanks, and other heavy armor around Gaza in an anticipated retaliatory operation for Hamas’s multiple-pronged attack last Saturday, which saw the Gaza-based terror group resorting to abuse, executions, and kidnapping of men, women, children, and, at times, full families and even an elderly Holocaust survivor. 

In southern towns, the terrorists went door to door, shooting Jews and burning homes with families inside, proceeding to murder soldiers and infants alike, all while thousands of rockets rained down on Israeli civilian centers.

The brutal attack on Israel has so far left at least 1,300 killed, over 150 hostages, and more than 3,000 wounded.

It also struck a harsh blow to numerous families across the globe, leading to nearly 80 foreigners being killed and many others wounded or taken hostage. 

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are speaking out against the idea of resettling Palestinian refugees in the United States.

House Republicans introduced the “GAZA Act” that would ban President Joe Biden’s administration from importing Palestinians to the United States to be resettled in American communities.

In contrast, Democrat New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman has called on the United States to “welcome” Palestinian refugees as experts predict that one million people fleeing the Gaza Strip will need new homes. 

Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden used his administration’s parole pipeline to resettle nearly 100,000 Afghans across American communities — many of whom were not interviewed in person beforehand and who were found to be linked to terrorism.

As Breitbart News reported, in Fiscal Year 2022 alone, Biden’s DHS gave green cards to about 63,000 legal immigrants to permanently resettle in the U.S. who arrived from countries previously included in a national travel ban list due to their involvement with terrorism.

Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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