(RNS) — Last year, as I arrived in Ireland, the airport customs officer asked me where I was originally from. I told her, “Palestine.” She looked at me, smiled, and said, “Every true Irish person is Palestinian at heart as well.” And with that, she stamped my passport and let me in. On Wednesday (March 12) in Washington, President Donald Trump, sitting beside Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin in the Oval Office, used the word “Palestinian” as a slur to talk down Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned. He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian,” Trump said, responding to a reporter’s question about Schumer’s views on corporate taxes. The contrast is striking. The Irish, a people who understand colonialism and occupation in their bones, see Palestinians as their kin. The American political class treats “Palestinian” as something shameful. The Irish aren’t the only ones who talk about Palestinians with respect. This week, meeting with a displaced Gazan family, Mohammad Tahir, the …