Against Muslim countries
Trump would reintroduce the travel ban
October 29, 2023, 5:03 a.m
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In 2017, then US President Trump introduced an entry ban for several Muslim-majority countries – which was then overturned by the courts. Now he announces that he wants to renew it if he is re-elected. He calls the war against Hamas a “battle between civilization and barbarism.”
Former US President Donald Trump promised at a gathering of Jewish Republicans to reintroduce an entry ban on Muslim-majority countries if he is re-elected. “We will keep radical Islamic terrorists out of our country,” Trump said on Saturday (local time) at the annual meeting of the Jewish Association of Republicans. “Do you remember the entry ban? On the first day I will reintroduce our entry ban,” assured the ex-president.
At the start of his presidency in 2017, Trump imposed significant restrictions on travel from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and, initially, Iraq and Sudan. The order was quickly challenged in court as discriminatory against a religious group, but was popular with Trump’s voter base. Joe Biden reversed the travel ban in his first week as president in 2021.
Trump was one of several conservative Republican presidential candidates who reiterated their support for Israel in the war against Hamas at the gathering of influential Jewish donors. The ex-president described the conflict as a “battle between civilization and barbarism, between decency and depravity and between good and evil.”
Trump recently caused sharp criticism when he described the pro-Iranian Hezbollah operating in Lebanon – which also works with Hamas – as “very smart”. “Hezbollah is very smart. They are all very smart,” said the 77-year-old. He immediately added that “the press” didn’t like it when he said something like that.
Thousands at pro-Palestinian demonstration
Support for Israel is a key issue for both major U.S. political parties, and a rare case of foreign policy that could influence the voting behavior of U.S. citizens – not least because of the large number of Jewish voters.
Meanwhile, in the New York borough of Brooklyn, thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday to protest Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Around 1.6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Muslims live in the metropolis on the US East Coast.
The radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas launched an unprecedented major attack on Israel on October 7th. According to Israeli information, around 1,400 people were killed. Since then, Hamas has also fired thousands of rockets into Israel. In response to the attacks, Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip and launched massive airstrikes. Israel also announced a major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.