Politics

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Can’t Answer This Basic Question On Palestine

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Julia Cohen Reporter
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Socialist New York Democratic primary winner Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez called Israelis occupiers of Palestine and then struggled to say what “occupation” meant on “Firing Line.”

“I … think that what people are starting to see … 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,” Ocasio-Cortez said Friday.

When PBS “Firing Line” host Margaret Hoover asked Ocasio-Cortez what she meant by “occupation,” she struggled to answer.

“Oh … um … I think what I meant is like … the … the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas and places where, um, where Palestinians are experiencing uh, difficulty in access to their housing and homes.”

When asked to expand on that definition, Ocasio-Cortez said she is “not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.”

Ocasio-Cortez has been a harsh critic of Israel, stating that the Israeli killing of Hamas operatives protesting the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem was a “massacre” on Twitter in May. (RELATED: Socialist Winner Of New York Primary Is Strong Israel Critic)

Ocasio-Cortez also has been seen with Thomas Lopez-Pierre, an anti-Semitic activist who brags about “protecting tenants from ‘greedy jewish landlords'” on his Twitter bio. Lopez-Pierre stood behind Ocasio-Cortez at her victory party, The Daily Caller reported in June.

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