Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday of enacting "unjust and inhumane policies."
"The Netanyahu administration has been pursuing a lot of extraordinarily concerning policies," she told reporters. "To conflate an individual leader or ego with being against the entire country I think is a hallmark behavior of folks like our president."
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"Just like we have the ability to criticize our president without being anti-American, I believe we can criticize the policies and decisions that the administration over there is pursuing without being against a country overall," continued the freshman congresswoman. "In fact, I think that what we all are united for is for a peaceful future that is just and economically just, socially just and culturally just that provides for the civil rights and human rights of all people."
"They can no longer use this allegation of anti-Semitism to defend their unjust and inhumane policies that hurt all people," she added. "And frankly, I think it damages the security of all people – Israeli, Palestinian alike. You can't use this cudgel of anti-Semitism to scare people away from pointing that out."
Ocasio-Cortez also said, "We won't stand up for that anymore, and we have to stand up for the peace and security of Israeli and Palestinian people. But frankly, Trump's policies do not advance that and neither do Netanyahu's."
The congresswoman's remarks added to her criticisms of Israel over the past few weeks.
On Aug. 15, in response to Israel barring Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from entering the country due to their support of the anti-Israel BDS movement, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that members of Congress "are frequently asked to visit Israel to 'see things for ourselves.' But Netanyahu choosing to ban the only 2 Muslim women in Congress from entering tells the US that only [some] Americans are welcome to Israel, not all. Trump is exporting his bigotry &making matters worse."
In late July, Ocasio-Cortez, who voted against an anti-BDS resolution that month in addition to signing onto Omar's pro-BDS resolution, concurred with a New York radio host, saying that what's happening in Israel is "very criminal" and giving a shoutout to the IfNotNow organization.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
