Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who made headlines last month when she upset incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), one of the highest-ranking Democrats in the House, expressed confusion over the facts regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while condemning Israel’s “occupation.”
In a recent interview with PBS’s “Firing Line,” Ocasio-Cortez, who identifies as a Democratic Socialist, raised concern when she said, “I also think that what people are starting to see—at least in the occupation of Palestine—is just an increasing crisis of humanitarian condition and that to me is just where I tend to come from on this issue.”
When pressed to expand on her comments, she explained how “Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to their housing and homes. Oh, I think—what I meant is that the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas and places where Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to their housing and homes ... ”
When asked again to clarify, Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged that she is not familiar with the facts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I am not the expert at geopolitics on this issue,” she said with a laugh. “I am a firm believer in finding a two-state solution on this issue, and I’m happy to sit down with leaders on both of these—for me, I just look at things through a human-rights lens, and I may not use the right words. I know this is a very intense issue.”
Despite her confusion, Ocasio-Cortez is no stranger to condemning Israeli actions. In a tweet last May, she said Israel was committing a “massacre” in Gaza, in reference to the deaths of Palestinian rioters, most of whom were later acknowledged to be members of Hamas, along the Israeli-Gaza border on May 14.
