Joe Biden faced withering criticism over his recent claim that he had done “more for the Palestinian community than anybody”, as Israel continues to strike Gaza with some of the fiercest bombardments in months.
The comments were made in an interview with Complex’s Chris “Speedy” Morman that was recorded last week in Detroit and published on Monday.
While defending his administration’s response to the conflict in Gaza, Biden said: “By the way, I’m the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody. I’m the guy that opened up all the assets. I’m the guy that made sure that I got the Egyptians to open the border to let goods through, medicine and food.”
More than 38,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, have been killed since the war began 10 months ago, according to Gaza’s health ministry. About 1,200 Israelis were killed in Hamas’s cross-border assault on 7 October.
“Putting aside active US complicity in the war in Gaza, you’d think someone who had 38,000 Palestinians killed under his tenure would have a bit more humility,” Mai El-Sadany, executive director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, wrote on X.
Layla Elabed, leader of the Uncommitted movement, which began in Michigan as a way to pressure the president to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and stop US funding and arms to the Israeli government, also condemned the remark.
“Biden claiming he’s done the most for Palestinians is like an arsonist taking credit for tossing a splash of water on the fire he’s still fueling,” she said in a statement on Monday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) called the remark “tone deaf” and a “deeply disturbing boast” that “completely ignores the genocidal campaign of mass slaughter, ethnic cleansing, and forced starvation that the Israeli government has launched against the Palestinian people with US support”.
This year, Biden approved a foreign aid package that included $26bn in additional wartime assistance to Israel and humanitarian aid.
In the statement, Cair’s national deputy director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, also accused Biden of “misstating his own Gaza policy” by saying that he had denied Israel “offensive weapons”, including 2,000lb bombs.
The administration paused a shipment of powerful bombs this year. But a Reuters analysis of weapons shipments found that there had been “no significant drop-off in US military support” for Israel, despite mounting calls by Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups to limit weapons supplies.
Biden is facing a sustained backlash from Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Americans as well as young people and anti-war progressives over his handling of the conflict. In Michigan, Arab American support could prove crucial to winning the battleground state – and the White House.
In the interview, Morman asked Biden: “Given the measure of your support for Israel, why would a Muslim or an Arab American vote for you for re-election?”
“For the same reason why Arab Americans in the region support me,” Biden replied. “It’s the best way to keep peace and to ensure a two-state solution in the region.”
