White House publishes strategy to fight hatred against Muslims and Arabs

The American president, Joe Biden, has published a long-awaited strategy to fight hatred against Muslims and against Arabs, after a huge increase since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas is the Palestinian group that leads Gaza, declared a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

The 64-page document was released just weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has imposed a travel ban on residents of several Muslim-majority countries during his first term in the White House.

Similarities were noted in the presented document with the strategy to combat anti-Semitism, compiled by the White House in September 2023.

The strategy was released more than a year after the murder of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume, who was stabbed just because he was Palestinian-American.

Biden has called this attack "disgusting", he has spoken about the increase in crimes based on hatred against Muslims and Arabs, which he has called unacceptable.

"Muslims and Arabs deserve to live with dignity and enjoy every right, just like all other Americans," Biden declared.

"Policies that result in discrimination against some communities are wrong and do not guarantee our security."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights organization, said the strategy was released "late," and blamed the White House for not keeping promises, including ending the war in Gaza, which has escalated Islamophobia.

Trump, who has won the support of some Muslims angry at Biden's support for Israel in the war in Gaza, has said he will impose an entry ban on anyone who questions Israel's right to existed, and will prevent foreign students who have "anti-Semitic" attitudes from studying.

Tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups on some American campuses have risen markedly since the Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

As a result of the attacks, over 1,200 people were killed and over 240 others were taken hostage.

Israel has then launched a military campaign in Gaza, with the aim of destroying the Hamas group.

More than 45,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the offensive, according to Palestinian health authorities. /REL/ (A2 Televizion)