Ron DeSantis isn't holding back when it comes to Palestinian Arabs or those who support them domestically, finding ways to talk about a thwarted protest in Orlando and how "not nice" Bethlehem is during an official press conference.
Florida's Governor amused a crowd in Coral Gables' Granada Church with riffs about a quickly thwarted protest in Central Florida, before rehashing familiar complaints about conditions in Bethlehem.
Regarding a "Queers for Palestine" protest near Disney that was dispersed after 11 minutes, DeSantis said that blocking traffic was "no bueno."
He noted that Miami law enforcement had cleared a different protest in 15 minutes, and that the better time from Florida Highway Patrol likely would lead to a "friendly competition" between local and state troopers "to see who can be out first."
From there, he eventually touched on the international topic.
"Bethlehem is in a Palestinian Arab-controlled area. And you, know you go to the church where they have it to commemorate the birth of Christ. And it's a nice church. But you walk out and there's this massive mosque that they built, like, to overhang it and there's trash everywhere and it's just not nice," DeSantis said.
DeSantis has previously said Bethlehem was "nasty," a "pigsty" and a "disgrace," and continues to suggest that the mosque in question is a recent provocation, ignoring the history regarding Omar Ibn Al Khattab, which is the sole mosque in Bethlehem's Old City, opposite the Church of the Nativity.
Lonely Planet notes that it "was built in 1860 on land granted by the Greek Orthodox Church in honor of Omar, the Prophet Muhammad's father-in-law, who in 637 took Jerusalem from the flagging Byzantines and then stopped for prayer at the Christian Church of the Nativity."
The Pact of Omar declared it would forever be a Christian place of worship.
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