As Vice President Kamala Harris begins to make her closing arguments before the election, former President Bill Clinton decides to campaign for her by lecturing Muslim Arab American voters who oppose the Biden administration's support for Israel's ongoing attacks in Gaza – and even goes so far as to justify it. Large numbers of Palestinian civilians have been killed by the military.

The 78-year-old Democrat made the startling remarks Wednesday at a Harris campaign rally in Michigan, a key swing state with one of the largest Palestinian and Arab American communities. These communities, both in Michigan and other states, have repeatedly expressed hesitancy to vote for Harris because her stance on Gaza policy is virtually the same as President Joe Biden's.

Clinton called this hesitation “a mistake.”

“I understand why young Palestinian and Arab Americans in Michigan think too many people have died, I understand that,” Clinton said to the quiet crowd in Muskegon. “But if you lived in one of those kibbutzim in Israel, right next to Gaza, where the people there were the most pro-Palestine of all Israeli communities and the most pro-two-state solution… and Hamas slaughtered them. “

Clinton's claim that Arab Americans “believe too many people have died” refers to the more than 43,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military since October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, while they took about 250 hostage. The Israeli military has also captured Palestinian civilians during its offensive, and medical experts estimate the death toll in Gaza is much higher than local officials can estimate.

Responding to critics who pointed to the disproportionate death toll and collective punishment – a violation of international law – the former president said that he was “not counting” but that Israeli forces had to kill tens of thousands of Palestinians for supposedly being human shields are Hamas.

It should be noted that the Israeli military was recently accused of using Palestinian civilians as human shields during its operations in the Gaza Strip. International and US law also warns against the indiscriminate killing of civilians, even if there are supposedly militants among them.

“What would you do if it was your family and all you had done was support a homeland for the Palestinians? “And one day they come to you and slaughter the people in your village?” Clinton said. But this also describes what the Israeli military is currently doing to families in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank – some of whom are relatives of the Palestinian-Americans to whom he addressed his remarks.

Clinton echoed the views of right-wing Israelis – such as equating all Palestinians with Hamas fighters – who work to dehumanize the occupied people so that great civilian sacrifice will be more widely accepted by the public. The former president also argued that Israelis inhabited the country “before their faith existed,” referring to Islam – a historically inaccurate claim that portrays Palestinians as pure Muslims when in reality they are a multi-faith group, largely descended from native Canaanites who have lived on the land for thousands of years.

“Bill Clinton's racist and ahistorical statements were intended to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land. “The Harris campaign does itself a disservice by engaging in this type of hateful rhetoric,” a spokesperson for the Institute for Middle East Understanding told HuffPost.

The Harris campaign did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment on Clinton's comments, including whether the candidate believes his comments will help her win the votes of Muslim and Arab Americans. It's unclear what the campaign was trying to achieve with such a speech just days before the election, as Harris continues to struggle to gain the trust of the people of Michigan.

“Rumor has it that Democrats plan to send Bill Clinton to Dearborn this weekend to rally the Arab votes,” wrote Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud on in front of this community. “You’re just doing more harm.”

The Biden-Harris administration has provided billions of dollars' worth of weapons to Israel, which has turned Gaza into a wasteland of rubble, sewage and corpses with little health care or aid. According to the Washington Post on Wednesday, the State Department has not yet taken action on nearly 500 reports received alleging that Israel used American weapons to cause excessive harm to civilians in Gaza.

Although pro-Palestinian voters and organizations are calling on Harris to support an arms embargo on Israel, she insists that the US will continue its military and diplomatic support for the country, which is accused of genocide internationally.

“Whether they end up losing Michigan or not, at this point the Democrats *deserve* to lose Michigan,” Mehdi Hasan, founder of media company Zeteo, wrote on X. “My goodness.”