US Representative Randy Fine, an ally of President Donald Trump, has boasted that he is not afraid of being called an Islamophobe and suggested that the Palestinian people should be destroyed.
At a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, Fine, who has long made Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian statements, cited the myth that Israelis are banned from parts of the occupied West Bank because of “apartheid” imposed against Israeli settlers.
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In fact, the Israeli military, which controls the Palestinian territories, has posted signs warning settlers not to enter Palestinian towns due to security concerns.
But settlers, often armed and protected by Israeli forces, regularly raid and pillage Palestinian villages. At least two Americans have been killed in settler attacks this year.
“We want to be free from Jews, so how do we reconcile this when we are dealing with a group of people who are constantly calling for the destruction of the state of Israel and who are openly holding signs that say, “Jews are not allowed in these areas?” Fine asked Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, during the hearing.
“So how do you create a long-term solution? Or do we need to solve it another way?”
Klein, who previously used the slur “filthy Arabs” and called for the profiling of Muslims in the United States, said Muslims needed to go through a “reformation” and embrace “Israel as a Jewish state.”
“No one wants to talk about it. They’re afraid of being called an Islamophobe,” Klein said.
Finne interrupted, “I’m not afraid of that.”
A U.S. Republican representing a district in Florida then doubled down on his volatile rhetoric.
“I don’t know how you make peace with people who seek your destruction. I think you will destroy them first,” he said.
The United Nations Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. This includes killing, harming, preventing childbirth, forcibly removing children, and imposing living conditions to cause destruction.”
Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 70,400 Palestinians and reduced nearly the entire area to rubble, is aimed at destroying the Palestinian people, leading rights groups and United Nations investigators say.
Abed Ayoub, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), criticized Fine, calling him “the Temu version of Benjamin Netanyahu,” referring to the discount online retailer and the Israeli prime minister.
“He’s hated by Republicans and Democrats because of his Israel first, Israel second, Israel third, Americans nowhere policy. At this point, he’s basically a foreign spokesperson and he’s not even a good spokesperson,” Ayoub told Al Jazeera.
“His unrestrained genocidal rhetoric shows his desperation to return to Tel Aviv and appease his superiors.”
This is not the first time Fine, who was elected to Congress earlier this year with the support of President Trump and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has made inflammatory remarks about Palestinians.
In 2021, Fine commented on a social post featuring a photo of a deceased Palestinian child, asking how she slept at night: “I’m sleeping really well! Thank you for the photo!”
“Hunger,” he wrote earlier this year in response to reports of deadly famine in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s blockade.
Fine praised the killing of American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eighi, who was shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank last year.
“Throw a rock and you’ll get shot. One less #Islamicterrorism. #FireAway,” Fine wrote in a social media post.
He has previously argued that fear of Muslims is justified. “Many Muslims are not terrorists, but they are radicals, not mainstream,” he wrote in a post about X in 2023. “Now is the time to tell the truth, not to indulge in the political correctness that will kill us.”
Despite such comments, Mr. Fine (who calls himself the Hebrew Hammer) regularly appears as a guest on several mainstream media outlets, including CNN.
Hatem Abudayeh, national chairman of the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), criticized Congressional Republicans and President Trump for not condemning Fine.
“It’s one thing to read disgusting, racist, anti-Palestinian, anti-Black, xenophobic vile content on social media 24/7, but you shouldn’t hear it from actual elected officials in this country,” Abudaya told Al Jazeera.
“This is what the Trump era has brought to the political stage: hate speech from hateful people like Randy Fine, a disgusting Zionist genocidal apologist who is allowed to spew racism without condemnation from the rest of his party or the president.”
