Human rights defenders on Friday condemned what former US President Donald Trump said about the Palestinians during Thursday's debate with President Joe Biden, describing those statements as racist or insulting.
Biden and Trump briefly exchanged views on the war in Gaza, but they did not objectively discuss how to end the conflict, which has claimed the lives of 38,000 people in the Strip, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, and caused a massive humanitarian crisis with widespread hunger.
Biden said, "The only one who wants the war to continue is Hamas."
Trump responded by saying that Biden had "become like a Palestinian," which human rights advocates said sounded like an insult.
Trump added, "Actually, it is Israel that (wants to continue), and you should let them finish the job. He (Biden) does not want to do that. He has become like a Palestinian but they do not like him because he is a very bad Palestinian. He is weak."
On Friday, Trump used the term "Palestinian" again in a similar way, and at a rally he described Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, as a Palestinian, adding: "He became a Palestinian because they had a few votes or something like that."
Racist insult
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a human rights organization, considered that Biden was wrong in his claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to end the war, adding that it considered Trump’s reference to the word “Palestinian” in the debate a racist insult.
• Corey Sailor, director of research and advocacy at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement: “Former President Trump’s use of the word ‘Palestinian’ as an insult is racist. President Biden’s announcement of his military support for the genocide committed by the Israeli government in Gaza is cruel and deaf.” disregard".
• Paul O'Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, told Reuters, "To insinuate that being Palestinian is somehow bad, as former President Trump did in describing President Biden as Palestinian, smacks of racism and hatred."
• The Trump campaign had no immediate comment on the criticism, according to Reuters.
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