State of the Union 2024 updates: Biden says US will set up Gaza aid port

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You can read the key takeaways from the speech here.

Senator Katie Britt painted a grim picture of the US under Biden in her response to the president’s speech. She focused on his economic and immigration policies.

Here’s what she had to say:

• “President Biden just doesn’t get it. He’s out of touch. Under his administration, families are worse off, our communities are less safe, and our country is less secure.”
• “President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace. This crisis is despicable. And the truth is it is almost entirely preventable.”
• “The American people are scraping by while President Biden proudly proclaims that ‘Bidenomics’ is working. Goodness y’all, Bless his heart. We know better.”
• “President Biden has failed. We’ve become a nation in retreat, and the enemies of freedom, they see an opportunity.”
• “Our commander-in-chief is not in command. The free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader.”

The Palestinian American congresswoman was draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh during the speech.

Her fellow progressive legislator Cori Bush also held a sign that said, “lasting ceasefire now”.

Omar Baddar has dismissed Biden’s announcement that the US will establish an aid port for Gaza, saying that “no flashy manoeuvre” can cover that the US administration continues to support and arm Israel.

Biden’s Gaza port thing is just absurd! No flashy humanitarian maneuver can cover for the fact that Biden CONTINUES to arm & fund the Israeli government’s mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, & offer political cover for Netanyahu as he starves children to death. #SOTU2024

— Omar Baddar عمر بدّار (@OmarBaddar) March 8, 2024

Katie Britt is delivering a response to the speech from her home in Alabama, criticising Biden’s policies.

Asma Mohammed, an organiser with the “no preference” voting campaign in Minnesota, which seeks to pressure Biden over his support for Israel amid the Gaza war, says his speech made her “angry”.

“I think that he further alienated voters who already were feeling like the president hasn’t been listening,” Mohammed told Al Jazeera.

She added that Biden used “flowery language” around his sympathy for Palestinians but failed to reassess US policy.

Mohammed welcomed the aid port that Biden announced for Gaza, but she questioned why Washington cannot pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow in the thousands of aid trucks waiting to enter the territory.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the US president should use Washington’s leverage to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.

“President Biden must stop trying to [play] both firefighter and arsonist during the Gaza genocide,” CAIR said in a social media post.

“He shouldn’t have to build a pier in Gaza or airdrop food on Gaza to get humanitarian aid past the Israeli blockade, nor should he simultaneously send thousands of new bombs and billions of dollars to the Israeli government.”

President Biden must stop trying to playing both firefighter and arsonist during the Gaza genocide. He shouldn't have to build a pier in Gaza or airdrop food on Gaza to get humanitarian aid past the Israeli blockade, nor should he simultaneously send thousands of new bombs and… pic.twitter.com/dGvLNfclSK

— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) March 8, 2024

The US president caused an outcry in October when he cast doubt on the official Palestinian death toll in Gaza provided by the territory’s Health Ministry.

“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” he said at that time.

Months later, Biden appeared to acknowledge the ministry’s tally in his State of the Union address, saying that more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war.

The address lasted nearly 90 minutes, tackling a host of domestic and foreign policy issues.

Stay with us as we provide analysis on Biden’s State of the Union address and more.

Biden says he is standing up to China and its “unfair” trade practices.

However, he adds: “I want competition with China, not conflict.”

After mildly criticising Israel and calling on its leaders to allow more aid into Gaza, the American president labelled himself a “lifelong supporter” of the US ally.

“No one has a stronger requisition than I do. I challenge any of you here,” he said of his support for Israel.

Palestinian politician and rights advocate Mustafa Barghouti says the US president’s push to establish a port to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza will likely fail to alleviate a growing hunger crisis there.

“It seems to be just another effort to divert attention from the real issue here, which is that 700,000 people are starving from north Gaza down, and Israel is not allowing humanitarian aid needed to them,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera before Biden’s address.

“There are tens of thousands of trucks waiting at the Egyptian border, and we don’t understand why the Americans cannot pressure the Israelis to allow these trucks to get in.”

He added that it will take months to build such a port as people in Gaza face famine.

Another concern, according to Barghouti, is that the US and Israel may try to use the port for the mass displacement of Palestinians.

The US president has warned the Israeli leadership against using aid to Gaza as a bargaining chip.

“Israel must do [its] part. Israel must allow more aid into Gaza, ensure humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the crossfire.”

The Israeli military’s war on Gaza has been one of the deadliest for United Nations workers in the agency’s history.

Biden tells Congress the initiative will not involve US troops on the ground.

He said he directed the military to establish a “temporary pier” that would be able to “receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelter”.

Biden did not say how long it would take to set up the pier.

“More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of whom are not Hamas. Thousands and thousands of innocent women and children, girls and boys also orphaned.”

“Israel has a right to go after Hamas,” the US president says.

He said the Palestinian group could end the Gaza war by laying down its arms and releasing the captives.

The US president has finally reached the foreign policy part of his speech.

He says the past few months have been “gut-wrenching” for Israelis and Palestinians.

Biden condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, adding that Israel has a “right to defend itself”.

The US president says lawmakers should pass a pending bill that would tighten border security and create new restrictions on asylum claims.

Biden also addressed the killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old woman who was allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant.

Riley’s death had become a rallying cry for conservatives.

“Laken Riley was killed by an illegal. But how many of thousands of people [have been] killed by ‘legals’? To her parents I say, my heart goes out to you,” Biden said.