Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wants Palestinian refugees to be accepted into America.
“I think there’s something to be said about the region’s partners being able to support and step up [for] Palestinians,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a video clip posted to X.
“However, that does not abdicate the United States from our historic role that we’ve played in the world of accepting refugees and allowing people to restart their lives here,” she said.
AOC believes the U.S. should be taking in refugees from Gaza. pic.twitter.com/iURlP7ngnG
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) October 17, 2023
Fellow member of the House “squad” of progressives Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York had similar thoughts.
“Fifty percent of the population in Gaza are children. The international community, as well as the United States, should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas,” he said, according to the New York Post.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said the concept is fatally flawed.
“The U.S. is the most generous nation in the world, but we are in no position to accept additional refugees, especially from a region with as high a risk of terrorism, given our nation’s inability to secure our own border or vet those who are already here,” Rubio said.
Should America welcome millions of Palestinian refugees?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 100% (33 Votes)
In an Op-Ed for GBNews, England’s Nigel Farage outlined the logic against bringing Palestinian refugees to the West.
Farage noted that leaders in Arab countries have said they do not want to take in refugees from Gaza, citing Egypt and Jordan.
“[L]et’s remind ourselves, shall we, that Saudi Arabia did not take a single refugee from Syria because they were worried it would affect their culture and their safety in Saudi Arabia. These are words that maybe we ought to listen to,” Farage wrote.
Egypt and other Arab states won’t take any refugees from Gaza because they don’t want to import terrorism.
If their neighbours aren’t prepared to take any, I don’t see why we should either.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 19, 2023
Farage noted that it was bad enough that “people who live within our communities, but have a different set of values to those of the more settled population, have been out, in some cases openly celebrating terrorist atrocities.”
Farage wrote that he would ask “anyone that thinks we should take large numbers of people from Gaza, why on earth should we risk our national security? Frankly, it doesn’t make sense.”
89% of Palestinians support terrorists firing rockets at Israeli civilians, according to a PCPO poll
Palestinians elected Hamas
Palestinians celebrated 9/11America should NOT take in a single refugee from Gaza, period.
There are 49 Muslim-majority countries. Let them take…
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 15, 2023
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, stressed that the mindset of Gaza residents is not something America needs or wants, according to NBC.
“The average person in Gaza that’s been taught to hate Jews, you know, their view is they don’t necessarily want their own state. What they seek is the destruction of the Jewish state. And that is not limited to Hamas. That is a widespread, deeply embedded belief amongst Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip,” DeSantis said.
