The View recently interviewed Kinnan Abdalhamid, the Palestinian American college student who survived a terrorist attack from a racist white gunman in Vermont, and his mom, Tamara Tamimi. When asked by Joy Behar if she could make sense of the attack, Tamimi correctly highlighted the racist rhetoric and dehumanization of Palestinians in mainstream media and politics, including by the Biden Administration. Her comments were not acknowledged by the hosts, but were instead met with a condescending, “You both are so brave.” I saw some comments on YouTube praising the program for finally featuring Palestinian voices, but honestly, shame on The View for pretending like they genuinely care about Palestinians and Muslims. For the past two months, with the exception of Sunny Hostin, their hosts have been reinforcing racist, pro-Zionist propaganda and talking points to justify genocide against Palestinians.
During one of their segments, Ana Navarro, who frequently voiced support for Muslim Americans during the Trump era, said there was nothing “irrational” about Israel cutting off electricity, food, and water to 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza. She endorsed collective punishment openly on air. On the same segment, Alyssa Farrah Griffin stated that Palestinians “need to join in ridding themselves of Hamas,” essentially blaming the Palestinians for their own suffering and absolving Israel of any accountability. Quite horrendously, Griffin was sure to assert her Syrian American identity as a way to portray legitimacy to her cruel victim-blaming of Palestinians.
In another segment, the discussion focused on the rise of anti-Semitism, and while there was some mentioning of increasing Islamophobia from Whoopi Goldberg, Behar was quick to shift the focus to arguing that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism, a dangerous conflation that criminalizes and vilifies anyone who is critical of Israel. Griffin chimed in and accused Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and pro-Palestinian activists of anti-Semitism. Behar followed up by absurdly likening Tlaib to Donald Trump.
When Hostin tried to address the historical context of Palestine and the atrocious realities of Israeli occupation, she was interrupted by Sara Haines, Behar, Griffin, and Goldberg. Haines read a quote from Obama about how previous Israeli administrations “made meaningful efforts to resolve the dispute and provide a path for a two-state solution — efforts that were ultimately rebuffed by the other side.” Griffin and Behar reinforced the idea that the Palestinians are “subjugated” by Hamas. It quickly became clear that the only legitimate narrative on The View is that Palestinians are to blame for their own oppression. In fact, the moment Hostin mentioned the word “occupation,” Goldberg cut her off and said the show needed to go to break.
Several weeks later, The View had Hilary Clinton on the show to share her thoughts on Israel’s war on Gaza. Clinton, unsurprisingly, repeated the same narrative as Obama, that Palestinians are the ones who rejected peace deals. When Hostin mentioned the death toll of Palestinians, which, at the time, was over 10,000, and emphasized that half of those murdered by Israel are children, Clinton apathetically nodded her head, completely devoid of any human empathy and compassion. Instead of expressing horror, condolences for the families, outrage, and condemnation of Israel’s atrocities, she decided to derail into a pseudo history lesson about the region and blamed the Palestinians for not having a state (watch Norman Finkelstein’s fact-based rebuttal to her claims here). Once again, zero accountability for Israel. No mentioning of the absolute daily horrors and injustices of Israeli occupation and apartheid. No mentioning of Israel’s siege on Gaza and deliberate targeting of schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, and residential buildings.
It’s worth noting how defensive, angry, and adversarial hosts like Haines, Behar, and Griffin become whenever Hostin raises crucial points about Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. Haines in particular speaks with so much contempt about Palestinians and Muslims that you probably would not have recognized her when she performed politeness around Iman Vellani, the Pakistani Muslim Canadian actress who portrays superheroine Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, a character who is a Pakistani Muslim American. During an interview where Vellani and her co-star Teyonah Parris promoted the new Marvel film The Marvels, Haines gave the most superficial smile to Vellani after asking her about how it feels to represent “your culture on such a huge platform.” I think most Muslims and people of color have experienced the kind of cliched fake fascination that Haines clearly exhibits in the interview, particularly in the way she places emphasis on the words “culture” and “such.” It’s almost satirical. The point is, Haines is disingenuous and could care less about Muslim representation in mainstream media, as is evident in how she has been vilifying Palestinians and Muslims for the past two months.
So when the hosts of The View show their fake sympathy to Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tamara Tamimi, I have no doubt that all of them, except for Hostin, were thinking in the back of their minds, condescendingly, that the real blame for all of this is Hamas, not Israel’s bombing, occupation, and demonization of Palestinians. After two months of justifying Israel’s siege and bombardment of Gaza, it’s shameful and appalling that The View brought Abdalhamid and Tamimi on the show as a tokenist attempt to create the appearance that they are not racist against Palestinians.
I was skeptical of The View supporting Muslim American rights during the Trump administration, but I know others who found their support meaningful. No doubt, that trust is now broken. Even if Trump gets re-elected and passes a new Muslim ban, I will not trust The View if they say they support Muslim Americans. Again, except for Hostin, The View has proven that they are one among many mainstream media programs that enable Islamophobia and genocide against Palestinians.
