In a recent interview with MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for banning Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from visiting Israel in 2019.
Hasan confronted AOC about “congressional indifference to Palestinian life,” asking if or whether the apathy stems from the fact that the victims are Arabs, mostly Muslims, or don’t look like members of Congress. Representative Omar found it “quite shocking” that human rights breaches and Palestinian suffering had been mostly overlooked in Congress.
AOC also brought up the 2019 event in which Netanyahu barred Representatives Tlaib and Omar from visiting Israel, to which her colleagues had a muted response. She saw it as a slap in the face to the United States as a whole.
AOC also commented on Rep. Byron Donalds’s decision to run for Speaker of the House, saying she thinks candidates for that position should have more legislative experience.
War crimes are never justified in retaliation for war crimes, and hence AOC has called for a peaceful end to the Middle Eastern issue while condemning Hamas’ actions. Before it was discovered that a missile launched by Islamic Jihad had accidentally gone off target, Tlaib and Omar had accused Israel of hitting a hospital in Gaza.