US Senator Lindsey Graham has sparked anger after responding to protests outside his home in Seneca, South Carolina, with anti-Palestinian remarks on social media.
“The Palestinians in Gaza are the most radicalized population on the planet, taught to hate Jews from birth. This problem will take years to resolve,” Graham said in a statement. job on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“When I hear ‘from the river to the sea,’ it makes me think of the ‘Final Solution.’ Hamas terrorists are SS on steroids,” he added, drawing a comparison with a Nazi paramilitary organization, the Schutzstaffel (SS).
As part of his post, Graham shared a video of a small line of protesters — about 20 in total — waving a large Palestinian flag on the road outside his home and chanting, “Lindsey Graham, we’re not done. The intifada is just beginning.”
Thursday’s remarks came on the July 4 holiday, when the United States celebrates its declaration of independence, and Graham used his message to denounce the protest as disruptive.
“While I respect the right to peaceful protest, I apologize to my neighbors and their families for the disruption caused on July 4 by this pro-Palestinian group,” he wrote.
“Events like this make me more determined than ever to support Israel, deradicalize the Palestinian people, and move toward a better, more stable world.”
The comments are the latest in a series of anti-Palestinian remarks by the Republican senator, who previously suggested that Israel would be justified in using nuclear weapons in Gaza, where it has been waging a deadly military campaign since October.
“Look, here’s what I would say about fighting an enemy that wants to kill you and your family. Why did we drop two bombs — nuclear bombs — on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? To end a war that we couldn’t afford to lose,” he said in May on NBC’s Meet the Press. “You apparently don’t understand what Israel is up against.”
Those televised comments partly sparked the protest outside Graham’s home on Thursday.
A group called the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) organized the protest in response to Graham’s “warmongering stance” on Israel. In a statement released to local media, it warned that Graham’s “warmongering rhetoric” “has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
“I am Palestinian and I have friends and family in Palestine,” Rose Hassouneh, a member of the PSL, told local ABC news. “I am participating in this campaign to support their struggle for liberation and because we must end all American support for the Jewish state.” Israeli Apartheid diet.”
More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war on October 7, following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas that killed 1,139 people.
The military offensive and siege have raised fears of genocide in the Palestinian enclave, and the United Nations and human rights groups have warned of a high risk of famine.
In response to Thursday’s social media post, PSL presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz compared Graham to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It is clear from Lindsey Graham’s remarks that he views the entire Palestinian population as ‘the enemy,’ making his genocidal intent as clear as Netanyahu’s. He should be held accountable for his complicity in war crimes,” De la Cruz said in a statement. statement published online.
A majority of Americans also disapprove of Israel’s actions in Gaza: the Gallup polling agency found in March that 55% opposed the military offensive, with their approval falling to 36%.
But the United States has continued to send weapons and aid to Israel despite the outcry, particularly from Arab, Muslim and progressive groups in the country. The United States contributes $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel each year and has pledged to provide $1.5 billion to Israel. billions of dollars in additional funds and supplies during the war.
Graham is part of a bipartisan majority in Congress that supports significant U.S. aid to Israel.
Both Democrats and Republicans have resisted calls to impose conditions on the aid in order to push for humanitarian guarantees.
The administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has also remained steadfast in its “unwavering” support for Israel during the war, despite some criticism of the war’s humanitarian toll.
In early May, for example, Biden announced that he had suspended a single delivery of heavy bombs to Israel, citing concerns about their use in Israel’s assault on Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.
But the US has continued to send more weapons to Israel, and last month US and Israeli media reported that Biden was expected to unblock the suspended shipment soon, following criticism of his decision.
While I respect the right to peaceful protest, I apologize to my neighbors and their families for the disruption caused on July 4 by this pro-Palestinian group.
I want to make this very clear: I am completely and utterly with Israel.
As I have always said,… pic.twitter.com/d9gElmgwBq
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) July 4, 2024
Graham is not the only member of the US Congress to face an outcry over anti-Palestinian remarks.
In February, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles was filmed walking the halls of Congress telling antiwar protesters, “I think we should kill them all.”
“Hamas and the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for 20 years, and it is time to pay the price,” he added.
Biden himself sparked anger when he questioned the rapid rise in the Palestinian death toll in October.
“I have no idea that the Palestinians are telling the truth about the number of people killed,” Biden said at a press conference.
Human rights advocates say such rhetoric contributes to anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic and anti-Arab hatred. In April, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it had received 8,061 reports of anti-Muslim hate in 2023, half of them after the start of the Gaza war.
There have also been high-profile attacks against Palestinian-Americans since the war began.
In October, a six-year-old child A young American of Palestinian origin A man named Wadea al-Fayoume was stabbed to death by his neighbor, who reportedly shouted, “You Muslims must die!” Al-Fayoume’s mother was also injured in the attack.
And in June, a Euless, Texas, woman was charged with attempted murder for allegedly trying to drown a three-year-old Palestinian-American girl in his apartment building’s swimming pool.
However, critics accuse Washington of downplaying the hatred that Palestinian, Arab and Muslim groups have faced since the war began.
They also accuse politicians of misrepresenting the aims of pro-Palestinian protesters by labelling them anti-Semitic: on the contrary, many protesters have called for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies linked to Israeli human rights abuses.
Last week, for example, the House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill that would prohibit the U.S. State Department from referring to Palestinian death toll statistics from the Gaza Health Ministry.
These statistics are, however, widely considered reliable by international organisations and independent observers.
“Six children, Mr. President, six are killed in Gaza every hour. But Palestinians are not just numbers. Behind those numbers are real people: mothers, fathers, sons, daughters whose lives have been stolen and whose families have been torn apart, and we should not try to hide that,” the Palestinian-American representative said. Rashida Tlaib said in the House of Representatives.
“There is so much anti-Palestinian racism in this room that my colleagues do not even want to acknowledge the existence of Palestinians, neither when they were alive, nor even now when they are dead.”
