Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) argued this week that Palestinian refugees from the current conflict in the Middle East should be settled in the United States. The New York Democrat’s comments came amid widespread anti-Israel protests on college campuses, including some calls for sympathy with the terrorist group Hamas.
Bowman said in a recent media interview that the United States would “fully support” bringing in refugees from Gaza. He said that the United States was a “land of migrants” and a “land of asylum seekers.” He said that the country has been an “open home” for those “escaping persecution and oppression and violence.”
He added that “whether they’re coming from Palestine, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Haiti, they’re coming here to contribute to our economy, which 99.9 percent of them are. We’ve always been a place to open our doors to immigrants coming here, so, yeah, fully support that.”
Bowman further said that he would “fully” support “amnesty for the migrants who have been here for quite some time.”
New York has seen nearly 200,000 migrants enter the city in the last two years.
There have been multiple elements of support for terrorist organizations during the current protests on college campuses. This includes at least one protester carrying the flag of Hezbollah, the terrorist organization that killed 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.
There has also been the widespread use of the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The slogan has been seen as a call to destroy Israel from the map.
The chanting by students at @Columbia University makes their position clear:
“We don’t want no two state. We want all of it. From the river to the sea. Palestine is all you’ll see.” pic.twitter.com/lcShJwFXeT
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 29, 2024
Furthermore, one protester at Columbia University was photographed holding a sign calling for Hamas to attack pro-Israel protesters.
There have also been a series of chants justifying the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel that killed about 1,200 people.
The actions on campuses have reached such a fever pitch that the White House released a statement earlier this month condemning antisemitism among the protesters.
