Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) declared Wednesday that there were “very few innocent Palestinian civilians” living in Gaza and compared the plight of the noncombatants to “innocent Nazi civilians” during World War II.
“I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of ‘innocent Palestinian civilians’ as is frequently said,” the Florida Republican said on the House floor.
“I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II.”
Mast, a staunch supporter of Israel who has volunteered alongside the Israeli Defense Forces in the past, criticized the “antisemitic teachings” in Palestinian schools.
He claimed the education system indoctrinates ordinary children, blurring the difference between innocent civilians and terrorists.
“The list goes on and on of the examples we can give of what somebody might just call a rank-and-file Gazan, or rank-and-file person in the West Bank, or just a Palestinian – that maybe they don’t say, falls under the name of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad – but by any classical definition would absolutely be considered a terrorist, somebody that in the last couple of weeks had been conducting kidnappings, murders, brutality that is nearly unspeakable,” he said. “I would ask that it be looked at through that lens.”
“There’s not this far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians,” Mast argued. “I haven’t seen the videos of the innocent Palestinian civilians that were out there trying to protect the Israelis, that were out there trying to stop attacks.”
Mast has sponsored a bill in the House – the Hamas International Financing Prevention Act – that would force President Biden to issue a case-by-case waiver to approve humanitarian aid transfers to Gaza to ensure assistance doesn’t end up in the hands of terror groups.
“Any assistance should be slowed down — any assistance,” Mast said during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the bill last month. “Because I would challenge anybody in here to point to me, which Palestinian is Hamas, and which one is an innocent civilian? Which is the child that was poking other Israeli children? And which ones exactly are the innocent ones?”
Biden, 80, has pledged to provide $100 million in humanitarian assistance “for the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.”