Ocasio-Cortez on Israel: Criticizing the Occupation Doesn't Make You anti-Semitic or anti-Israel

Freshman Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Tuesday, as well as a myriad of other topics, while on New York radio station Hot 97’s morning show “Ebro in the Morning” with Ibrahim "Ebro" Darden.

“How do you have white supremacist Jews?” Ebro asked the congresswoman. “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.”

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The radio host continued, “And what's going on with Israel and Palestine, while it's very, very, deep, it is very, very, criminal, and it is very, very unjust.”

Ocasio-Cortez shot back, “Absolutely,” and added, “I think, too, where we're at as a country when it comes to Israel-Palestine is very much a generational issue.”

The congresswoman continued, arguing that the Netanyahu administration and the Trump administration are similar in attempting to silence criticism of Israel.

“The Right wants to advance this notion that if you engage and critique an Israeli policy you are anti-Semitic," she said. "But it’s the furthest thing from the truth.”

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“Criticizing the occupation doesn't make you anti-Israel, frankly. It doesn't mean that you are against the existence of a nation,” the congresswoman argues. “It means that you believe in human rights, and it's about making sure that Palestinian human rights are equal to Israeli human rights, and there are a lot of troubling things happening there.”

“Jewish people have been persecuted throughout all of human history, but I don't think that by marginalizing Palestinians, you create safety,” she added.

“I believe that injustice is a threat to the safety of all people, because once you have a group that is marginalized and marginalized and marginalized — once someone doesn't have access to clean water, they have no choice but to riot, right? And it doesn't have to be that way,” she concluded.