Gov. DeSantis: “There never was a Palestine”
Florida Governor Ron Desantis criticized anti-Israel protesters for pretending to advocate for ‘Palestine’ by stating that “There has never been a country or state called Palestine.” He explained that the true motive behind anti-Israel protests was hatred of Jews.
At a press conference in which he spoke about his efforts to combat human-trafficking, Gov. Desantis was asked about anti-Israel protests in his state. He emphasized that the people of Florida “stand with the State of Israel.”
“Israel was the one that was attacked,” he stated to applause. He described his actions against campus protests, saying, “We don’t let the inmates run the asylum. NOne of that is first amendment activity.”
“Saying things like from the river to the sea, that’s not some cheeky chant. They’re basically saying they want to see the destruction of the State of Israel and a second Holocaust. That’s what Hamas wants. That’s why Hamas baked babies in ovens. That’s why they were raping the mothers. That’s why they were beheading elderly people on October 7.”
“You know, it’s interesting,” the governor continued. “I didn’t see those folks protesting Hamas’s actions. They were very quiet about Hamas’s actions. Now they’re just doing and they’re protesting this, but I’d also say people should learn their history. The fact of the matter is, there’s never been a country or state called Palestine. Jews have the longest connection to that territory. It goes back to Biblical times thousands and thousands of years. They were displaced by hostile forces over the years. But just in the immediate history until World War One, that was hundreds of years of rule by the Ottoman Empire, by Turks. It was not a Palestinian state.”
“And then the Brits took it over after World War One they had the Mandate for Palestine. And the vision was to have a Jewish state and an Arab state and the UN after World War Two, adopted Jewish state and and Arab state. Jews accepted it and founded modern Israel. The Arabs rejected it and went to war against Israel, a war that they lost.”
“They also lost the war to annihilate Israel and ‘67 and ‘73 and they’ve had all these intifadas ever since then,’ he continued. “So how is it somehow that [Israel is] occupying when [they] have the best connection to the land?”
“They had accepted a partition plan and then had to win defensive wars just to be able to keep their people alive. So I think a lot of this is not rooted in facts. It’s not rooted in history.”
“We are a speck in history compared to that history,” Desantis said. “You go back there you got 1000s of years, many 1000s of years of history. You can open up a Bible you can walk in these areas and see what they look like…all the things that are so important, that really formed the foundation of Western civilization.”
“And I can tell you this, in the Old City of Jerusalem, somebody like me that goes to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or some of the other Christian sites, you’re able to go. You’re able to practice freely. You would not be able to do that if it was in a Palestinian Arab area.”
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