House Republican Says the Term ‘Innocent Palestinian Civilians’ Is Like Saying ‘Innocent Nazi Civilians’

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) cautioned against using the term “innocent Palestinian civilians” because, he said, it would be like referring to “innocent Nazi civilians” during World War II.

Palestinian casualties have mounted in recent weeks since Hamas carried out terrorist attacks inside Israel when militants killed 1,400 people and abducted more than 200 on Oct. 7. Since then, Israel has launched air strikes and ground incursions against Gaza, which Hamas controls. The Health Ministry in Gaza said more than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed. Israel disputes the figure, but regardless, the death toll is mounting quickly. Israeli officials said the country bombed the same refugee camp twice in as many days to hit what it said were Hamas terrorists.

Republican and Democratic leaders have dismissed calls for a ceasefire as unserious at best, while making obligatory statements about the need to limit civilian casualties.

Mast, however, is not prepared to make a distinction between Palestinian civilians and Hamas.

“I think when we look at this as a whole, I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of ‘innocent Palestinian civilians,’ as is frequently said,” Mast said during a floor speech on Wednesday. “I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II.”

The lawmaker then criticized the school curriculum taught to Palestinian children, blasting it as anti-Semitic.

“The list goes on and on of the examples we can give of what somebody might just call a rank-and-file Gazan, or rank-and-file person in the West Bank, or just a Palestinian – that maybe they don’t say, falls under the name of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad – but by any classical definition would absolutely be considered a terrorist, somebody that in the last couple of weeks had been conducting kidnappings, murders, brutality that is nearly unspeakable,” he continued. “I would ask that it be looked at through that lens.”

He added that it’s not a “stretch” to declare that “there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians. I haven’t seen the videos of the innocent Palestinian civilians that were out there trying to protect the Israelis, that were out there trying to stop attacks.”

Watch above via C-SPAN.