Why Is Ron DeSantis’s Rise to the US Presidency So Troubling to Muslims and Palestinians?

From day to day, the popularity of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44 years, is escalating, and his name is being circulated as the most prominent candidate for the US presidential elections capable of overthrowing Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.

However, the Middle East Eye website confirmed that DeSantis’s rise to the US presidency will mean more policies based on racism and hating Muslims, given his black human rights record, especially during his months in the notorious Guantanamo prison.

Despite some differences between DeSantis and Trump, from the point of view of some, he is often described as the little Trump or the less ugly face of Trump, especially with regard to the issues of immigrants, refugees, Islamophobia, support for “Israel” and settlement.

As the Guardian newspaper described it in a report last November, DeSantis is from the far-right and ideologically similar to Trump.

 

Alarming Republican

In the midterm elections in early November 2022, DeSantis achieved a landslide victory, as he was re-elected by a large margin over his Democratic rival, more than 1.5 million votes, which raised speculation about his ability to compete for the leadership of the Republican Party and the presidency of the country in the 2024 elections.

Some opinion polls showed DeSantis ahead of Trump with regard to running for the presidential elections on behalf of the Republican Party in 2024, according to what was reported by the Axios website on December 14, 2022.

Two separate polls conducted by Suffolk University/USA and The Wall Street Journal found DeSantis ahead of Trump by a significant margin among voters in general and specifically among Republican-leaning voters.

In turn, the Middle East Eye, in a report on December 5, 2022, reviewed the beginning of DeSantis’s path, saying that he served in the US Navy between 2004 and 2010.

In 2006 he was appointed an officer to support the US military mission in Guantanamo Bay, and in 2007 he was sent as a legal advisor to the Naval Forces Command in Iraq.

Little is known about what happened during the months DeSantis spent in Guantanamo, which houses nearly 800 Muslims captured during the US-led war on terrorism.

However, former Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Mansoor Adayfi, recently stated during a podcast with Empire Files that while being force-fed in prison, he saw DeSantis laughing.

After his mission in Iraq and his work in Guantanamo, the US Department of Justice appointed DeSantis in 2008 as a federal prosecutor in the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Central District of Florida; then he set out to pursue his political life, which was famous for introducing legislation targeting the Muslim minority and the Palestinian cause.

According to the website, the possibility of DeSantis running against former US President Donald Trump to run for the presidency of the United States for the Republican Party would be a source of concern for Muslims and Palestinians.

In turn, Osama AbuIrshaid, Executive Director of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), told MEE, “A presidential run of such a man as a GOP candidate would send a very negative message, not only to American Muslims but to all minorities in this country.”

“The core of this message is that the Republican Party still represents an incubator of racism, intolerance, and Islamophobia and that this party does not respect the values ​​of equality for all citizens,” according to Mr. AbuIrshaid.

On her part, Maha Hilal, a researcher and writer on institutionalized Islamophobia, believes that “rhetoric has played a critical role in justifying the targeting of Muslims in the War on Terror and beyond, and both Trump and DeSantis have weaponized narratives to further demonize and criminalize Muslims.”

 “Both Trump and DeSantis used the rhetoric as a weapon directed at increasing the demonization of Muslims, describing them as criminals,” Ms. Hilal stressed to MEE.

She stressed that exacerbating already mainstreamed and normalized Islamophobia, an increase in Islamophobic narratives emerging from a Trump/DeSantis face-off will only serve to garner further support for policies that scapegoat Muslims under the guise of national security.

 

Anti-Muslim Politician

In the same context, Middle East Eye stated in its report that “in 2013, DeSantis was elected to Congress from Florida, and since that time, he has participated in presenting many bills targeting Muslim communities inside and outside the country.”

On two separate occasions, DeSantis and others have introduced legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, a move that American Muslims see as an attempt to stigmatize the Muslim minority, disrupt civil society, and fuel Islamophobia.

“It is clear that the Muslim Brotherhood poses a real threat to US national security interests,” DeSantis said during a congressional hearing in 2018.

Also, Congressman DeSantis introduced a bill in 2015 that sought to ban the entry of immigrants from Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, all Muslim-majority countries.

The bill did not pass at the time. However, several years later, former President Donald Trump introduced his own ban on Muslims, which included all the countries mentioned in DeSantis’s bill, but added two countries to the list (Iran and Sudan).

He also has close ties to a number of personalities and groups with a history of targeting Muslims, including Action for America, which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has designated as an anti-Muslim hate group.

The Florida governor also attended a meeting of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, at which one of the attendees suggested killing Muslims.

DeSantis also opposes closing the Guantanamo prison, having signed a bill that would prevent any US administration from doing so.

During a congressional committee hearing on Countering Extremism at Home in 2017, DeSantis claimed that radical Islamic extremism is the main driver of this problem and that the government should give it immediate attention.

Under former President Barack Obama, DeSantis criticized the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program, which targeted Muslim communities and drew harsh criticism from human rights organizations.

However, DeSantis’s criticism of the program was not from the same standpoint, but rather because he considered it insufficient and that it misses opportunities to uncover and disrupt terrorist plans.

Also in 2017, DeSantis drafted an amendment to the spending bill, which would cut funding to the International Islamic Relief Organization, even though it is a well-known charitable organization and has partnerships with a number of US and international agencies.

 

Pro-'Israel' Governor

Like many Republican politicians, Ron DeSantis is a staunch supporter of the Israeli occupation, and after being elected governor of Florida in 2018, he vowed to be the most pro-“Israel” governor in American history.

In 2013, he introduced the Palestinian Accountability bill, through which he demanded that US aid to the Palestinian Authority be halted until it formally recognizes the right for “Israel” to exist as a Jewish state and sever all ties with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

He also attacked the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, as a charitable organization that operates from American soil and funds Hamas, according to his claim.

DeSantis also supported moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem.

In an attempt to woo American Jews and win their support, DeSantis said after winning the midterm elections last month: “The occupied West Bank is not actually occupied by Israel, but is disputed territory,” as reported by the Times of Israel on November 20, 2022.

DeSantis also spoke at the Republican Jewish Alliance conference, which was born in Las Vegas recently, about Florida’s largest trade mission ever, saying: “We were the first statewide elected official to do public events in Judea and Samaria and its settlements,” using the biblical names for the West Bank, as favored by Jewish extremists.

On a trip to “Israel” in 2019, DeSantis blamed the Palestinians, saying: “If you look at this whole conflict, to me, the biggest problem has been that Palestinian Arabs have not recognized Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.”

DeSantis not only presented himself as a pro-“Israel” politician but also as a pro-settler politician.

Weeks after becoming governor of Florida, DeSantis blacklisted the global real estate company Airbnb because it stopped displaying ads for rental homes in Israeli settlements. After pressure, Airbnb later reversed its decision until it was removed from DeSantis’s blacklist.

In addition, he has been a vocal advocate for legislation against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and has stated that he leads efforts in Congress to combat BDS.

 

Message to Trump

In mid-December 2022, DeSantis participated in an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, during which he met with Israeli ambassador Mike Herzog and Emirati ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba for 30 minutes, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“It was a productive meeting with Governor Ron DeSantis... We gave an overview of the Abraham Accords and the strategic significance and opportunities that they present to our region, the world, and to Florida,” Herzog wrote, pointing out that he and the UAE ambassador invited the ruler of Florida to visit the occupying state and Abu Dhabi.

“I thanked the governor for his strong support for Israel and for the significant steps he has taken to combat antisemitism. We look forward to continuing to work with him to deepen Israel-Florida relations,” Herzog said.

It is noteworthy that the Trump administration had brokered the Abraham Accords in 2020, which led to four Arab countries, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan, joining Egypt and Jordan in establishing diplomatic relations with the Israeli occupation.

According to what observers see, “Israel” and the UAE want, through their meeting with DeSantis, before the date of the presidential elections, to deliver messages to Trump that they have other options in the United States with which they can deal.

Last November, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections, two years after he was defeated by current President Joe Biden. Trump also warned DeSantis against running in 2024, saying, It would hurt the Republican Party.