Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) agreed on Tuesday with a New York radio host, saying that what's happening in Israel was "very criminal," condemning its treatment of Palestinians, whom she said were left with no choice but to "riot" against the Jewish state.
"Now you look around the globe and you have multiple corrupt governments working together – you've got Israel, you've got America, you've got Russia, you've got the Saudis, right – all working in concert. And I bring up Israel because you've been vocal about Palestine, the occupation and what needs to go on there. And specifically, I even think people in Israel are trying to get Netanyahu as well," asked "Ebro in the Morning" host Ebro Darden.
"I agree. I agree with that," replied Ocasio-Cortez.
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Darden continued, "There's a lot of young Jewish people that I know that are absolutely against the occupation, and I wanted you, because often on this program, we have the freedom to address the fact that something that you know people, it's an oxymoron, how do you have white-supremacist Jews? How do you have people like Stephen Miller? How do you have these individuals who are legit aligning with racism and white supremacy, but they're Jewish, and it's something that most people can't wrap their brains around. But it's a real thing, and what's going on with Israel and Palestine, while it's very deep, it is very, very criminal. It is very, very unjust."
Ocasio-Cortez told the host that there are "really amazing organizations of young people, like IfNotNow, that they are young Jews organizing for justice because they realize that all of our fates and destinies are intertwined," she said. "There cannot be justice in Israel without [justice] for Palestinians, too," she said.
Ocasio-Cortez recently lent her support for a measure in the House that supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
The freshman congresswoman, who last week voted against a resolution condemning the anti-BDS movement in addition to signing onto Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) pro-BDS resolution, responded, "Absolutely, and I think to where we're at as a country when it comes to Israel-Palestine is very much a generational thing. I think that when we start looking at it through that lens, a lot of this stuff starts to make sense. It's like what you're talking about –young Jews in Israel are sick of this."
Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted last year that Israel was committing "a massacre" in defending itself against Hamas rioters along the Gaza-Israel border, added, "There's this idea that if you criticize a policy of Israel, the Right wants to advance this notion that if you engage in critique of Israeli policy then you are anti-Semitic. But it's the furthest thing from the truth … criticizing the occupation doesn't make you anti-Israel, frankly. It doesn't mean you're against the existence of a nation."
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
