Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Sunday that the U.S. should not accept refugees from Palestine as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on, arguing that the education system within Gaza teaches kids to hate Jews.
DeSantis’ comments came as Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan pressed the 2024 presidential candidate over his claim on Saturday that “not all [Gazans] are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic.”
“Of the two million people who live in Gaza, half of them are under the age of 18,” Brennan told DeSantis, adding after playing a clip of his remarks, “I’m sure you know all Arabs are Semites but how can you paint with such a broad brush to say 2.3 million people are antisemitic.”
DeSantis responded by reiterating that Gaza refugees “should go to Arab countries” and “the U.S. should not be absorbing any of those.”
He went on to say that “not everyone’s a member of Hamas, most probably aren’t, but they did elect Hamas.”
Brennan pushed back, noting that the last election was held in 2006 before Hamas seized control of the strip from the Palestinian Authority.
While the vast majority of Palestinians living in Gaza did not vote for Hamas—based on the simple fact alone that most were not eligible to vote in 2006 because of their age—DeSantis argued that there was celebrating of the attacks on Israel by “a lot of those folks who are not Hamas.”
“But if you look at their education system, this has been an issue for a long time,” DeSantis continued. “They teach kids to hate Jews.”
“The textbooks do not have Israel even on the map. They prepare very young kids to commit terrorist attacks,” DeSantis added. “So I think it’s a toxic culture and I think if we were to import large numbers of those to the United States it would increase antisemitism in this country and I think it would increase anti-Americanism in this country.”
