By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Human rights activists condemned the former president on Friday Donald Trump‘s references to Palestinians and immigrants allegedly taking jobs from black Americans during Thursday’s debate with President Joe Bidenand called the comments racist or offensive.
Biden and Trump had a brief exchange on the war in Gaza but no substantive discussion on how to end the conflict that the Health and Human Services Department says has killed 38,000 people in the enclave and created a massive humanitarian crisis with widespread hunger.
The war began when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting some 250 others, according to Israeli counts.
“The only one who wants the war to continue is Hamas,” Biden said. Trump responded by saying Biden has “become like a Palestinian,” which came across as an insult, according to human rights activists.
“Actually, Israel is the one (who wants to continue), and you should let them go and let them finish the job. He (Biden) doesn’t want to do that. He has become a kind of Palestinian, but they don’t like him because he is a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weak one,” Trump said.
On Friday, Trump again used the term “Palestinian” in a similar way, this time during a rally in which he said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, was Palestinian. “He became a Palestinian because they have a few more votes or something,” he added.
The advocacy group the Council on American Islamic Relations said Biden was wrong when he claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to see the war end, while adding that he considered Trump’s Palestinian comment in the debate a racist insult.
“Former President Trump’s use of ‘Palestinian’ as an insult was racist. President Biden’s declaration of his military support for the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza was callous,” Corey Saylor, director of research and advocacy at CAIR, said in a statement. Israel denies genocide allegations.
“To insinuate that being Palestinian is somehow a bad thing, as former President Trump did when he called President Biden Palestinian, stinks of racism and anti-Arab hatred,” Paul O’Brien, director of Amnesty International USA, told me. to Reuters.
Human rights advocates have reported a rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias and anti-Semitism in the US since the latest outbreak of conflict in the Middle East. The war in Gaza and Washington’s support for Israel have also led to months of protests in the US calling for an end to the conflict.
Trump also drew criticism for using the terms “black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs,” claiming that immigrants entering the United States through the Mexican border were taking away those jobs.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to the criticism.
Immigration is a major election issue and Trump claims Biden has failed to secure the US southern border, allowing dozens of criminals to enter. Studies show that immigrants are no more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.
“The fact is, his (Biden’s) great killing of black people is the millions of people he allows to enter through the border,” Trump said during the debate. “They’re taking black jobs, and they’re taking Hispanic jobs.”
The civil rights organization NAACP wrote on X: “What exactly are black and hispanic jobs!?!”. It added: “There is no such thing as a black job.”
O’Brien of Amnesty International told Reuters that Trump’s comments on immigration stemmed from white supremacy thinking.
“It is disheartening that false narratives based on white supremacy and racism about people seeking asylum at the border and about immigrant communities in the United States continue to permeate our national discourse,” he added.
Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, an organization that mobilizes black voters, said Trump’s comments were untrue and that Biden should have taken a tougher stance against such false claims.
“That there are specific black jobs for black people who come and take over immigrants. Complete nonsense,” Shropshire said.
Trump’s campaign has made an effort to lure black voters, with the former president visiting Detroit and Philadelphia in recent weeks. Some polls showed a decline in support for Biden among Black voters, who have historically been among the Democratic Party’s most loyal voting blocs.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Kat Stafford and Alistair Bell)
