Washington, DC – Palestinian rights advocates in the United States are denouncing the selection of Republican Congressman Brian Mast to lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mast, a pro-Israel hawk known for his incendiary remarks about Palestinians, was nominated on Monday by fellow Republicans to be the chair of the influential panel in the incoming Congress, sparking outrage.
On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) highlighted Mast’s history of anti-Palestinian statements, including his vilification of civilians and his call for destroying infrastructure in Gaza.
“Brian Mast might be the perfect person to serve as a spokesperson for the war criminals of the Israeli government, but he has no business running congressional hearings on sensitive international issues that impact our nation’s security,” CAIR government affairs director Robert McCaw said in a statement.
Mast hit back at CAIR on Wednesday. “I’d be more concerned if they were supporting me. Pace yourselves and buckle up,” he wrote in a social media post.
To assume leadership of the committee, the Florida Republican still needs to be elected by the full House, where his party holds a thin majority when the new chamber takes office early in January.
If successful, Mast — who wore an Israeli army uniform to the US Capitol last year — will preside over the panel that oversees legislation related to foreign policy.
Mast, a US army veteran who lost his legs in an attack in Afghanistan, has previously served as a civilian volunteer in the Israeli military.
Comparing Palestinians to Nazis
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October last year, Mast has publicly defended Israel’s right to use any means necessary to attack the Palestinian enclave.
Last year, for example, Mast said humanitarian aid to Gaza “should be slowed down”, despite a suffocating Israeli siege that has caused deadly starvation in the enclave.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in November for suspected war crimes, including the use of hunger as a weapon of war.
Mast has also suggested that all Palestinians in Gaza are legitimate targets for Israeli violence and starvation.
“I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II. It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians,” the US congressman said last year.
The remarks prompted Democratic Congresswoman Sara Jacobs to lead an unsuccessful push to formally rebuke Mast in the House.
“Brian Mast’s comments are incredibly dangerous and dehumanizing as we continue to push for humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in harm’s way in Gaza and as Islamophobic hate crimes rise,” Jacobs said in a statement at that time.
Medea Benjamin, co-fou