Washington DC – On Tuesday, after the Israeli army bombed a school housing displaced people in central Gaza, a young man stood amid the chaos with a rocket fragment in his hand. “It’s an Israeli-American missile,” he said.
“We were stepping on dead bodies. I cannot describe the cruelty of what is happening,” the man said in a video verified by Al Jazeera after the attack in the Nuseirat area, which killed 17 civilians and left dozens injured.
Such mass casualty attacks have been an almost daily reality for Palestinians in Gaza over the past nine months. Authorities and ordinary people in the besieged territory have expressed outrage that the bombs decimating their lives are, in many cases, supplied by the United States as part of its alliance with Israel.
After airstrikes in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis killed at least 90 Palestinians last week, the Gaza Government Media Office directly blamed the United States for the attack.
But US President Joe Biden has a different view of Washington's role in the war.
“I'm the guy who did more for the Palestinian community than anyone else,” he said in an interview that aired online Monday.
“I’m the guy who opened all the assets. I’m the guy who made sure the Egyptians opened the border… I’m the guy who got the Arab states to agree to help the Palestinians with food and shelter.”
He added: “I want to say that I have been very supportive of the Palestinians.”
The US president's statement was met with derision by Palestinian rights advocates, who stressed that Biden's unconditional support for Israel is fueling a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“It’s hard to decide whether Biden’s comments were arrogant, blind or deceitful. He seems to want to take credit for both allowing genocide and allowing Palestinians to have some medicine, water and food,” said Amer Zahr, a Palestinian-American comedian and activist.
Lexis Zeidan, a Palestinian-American organizer based in Detroit, echoed that criticism.
“The only thing Biden did more for the Palestinians was increase their death toll with US-funded Israeli bombs,” he told Al Jazeera.
Armed by the United States, the Israeli army has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza and razed large parts of the territory.
A self-proclaimed Zionist
In the same interview with journalist Speedy Morman, Biden reaffirmed that he identifies as a Zionist.
“A Zionist questions whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of its history of persecution,” he said.
The president then asked the interviewer if he knew what it meant to be a Zionist.
Zionism is a Jewish nationalist ideology that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century and called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, where at the time only a small minority of the population was Jewish.
Although proponents of the ideology present it as a form of self-determination, many Palestinian rights advocates argue that Zionism has led to dispossession and the continued subjugation and oppression of Palestinians.
During the interview, Biden reiterated a stance he often makes when explaining his affinity for Israel: He claimed that Jews around the world would not be safe without the country.
“If Israel did not exist, all Jews in the world would be at risk,” he said.
Some activists say such comments could be interpreted as perpetuating the anti-Semitic trope of “dual loyalty” – the idea that Jewish people must be loyal to Israel, regardless of their origins.
Eva Borgwardt, national spokesperson for IfNotNow, a youth-led Jewish-American progressive group, criticized the president's comment.
“Many of us hear this statement repeated as a threat to our safety in this country. As President of the United States, it is Biden’s job to make America safe for everyone, including American Jews,” Borgwardt told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“If he wants to keep Jews safe, he should focus on combating the real and present danger of white nationalism, rather than sending more bombs into Israel to prolong its assault on Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and left hostages languishing in captivity.”
US support for Israel
Zahr, the Palestinian-American comedian, also criticized Biden for insisting he is a Zionist.
“After nine months, he still calls himself a Zionist, defiantly and proudly. Well, in November, he will see how that word gets us to vote,” Zahr told Al Jazeera.
Because of his unwavering support for Israel, Biden has struggled with key sectors of the Democratic Party, including young people, progressives, and Arab and Muslim Americans.
His election troubles were compounded by a disastrous performance in a debate in June, where he appeared exhausted and confused at times.
While Biden and senior officials in his administration often stress their support for Israel, the president downplayed that support during the interview with Morman.
Ahmad Abuznaid, executive director of the American Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USPCR), said Biden claims to support Palestinians because he understands that he has alienated voters from communities that support Palestinian rights.
“And so he tried to become an ally of the movement when in fact what he is doing is supporting the genocide of our people,” Abuznaid told Al Jazeera. “Right now, he is weaponizing it. He is defending it. He is supporting it. And this is how Palestinian Americans perceive President Biden and these comments. The comments are offensive. They are disrespectful.”
Earlier this month, Biden boasted that he was more popular in Israel than in the United States, but when addressing the Arab vote with Morman, the US president falsely claimed that the US is only sending defensive weapons to Israel.
“I denied them the offensive weapons they were using, 2,000-pound bombs and the rest,” he said.
While the United States has stopped a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel this year, Biden administration officials have stressed that the transfer of other weapons has continued steadily and regularly.
In April, Biden authorized an additional $14 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel. And the Pentagon confirmed this week that the 500-pound bombs that were part of the suspended shipment had been separated and delivered to the U.S. ally.
“Biden could stop this genocide today by turning off the tap of unlimited funds and weapons to Israel. But instead, he allows Netanyahu to do as he pleases, repeatedly calling himself a Zionist and doing what the emperor does: supporting Israel unequivocally because Israel secures American interests in the Arab world,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, president of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).
“If Biden is our savior, then who is our enemy?”
