In what her office billed as a “major speech,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) accused Israel of “a mass starvation of people, engineered and orchestrated following the killing of another 30,000, 70% of whom were women and children killed.”
“If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like, open your eyes. It looks like the forced famine of 1.1 million innocents,” the progressive congresswoman, who is a member of the so-called “Squad,” said on the House floor on Friday.
“It looks like thousands of children eating grass as their bodies consume themselves, while trucks of food are slowed and halted just miles away,” AOC said. “It looks like good and decent people who do nothing. Or too little. Too late.”
Ocasio-Cortez claimed that Israel is blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza—a charge that Israel has refuted. She said Washington must stop transferring weapons to Israel.
“This is not just about Israel or Gaza. This is about us. The world will never be the same,” she said. “And we will never be the same. And we must write our story in this moment, of what it means and who we are as Americans.”
“Our story must be not that we were good men who did nothing. But that we were a committed democracy that did something,” AOC added.
The Anti-Defamation League noted that genocide “requires intent.”
“Israel has been patently clear with its objectives: to cripple Hamas terrorists and release the hostages,” the ADL said. “AOC’s accusation lacks proper factual or legal foundation. Such statements merely perpetuate false claims and foster hate.”
