‘Israel Has Been Indiscriminately Attacking Gazans’
Returning hostages and securing a ceasefire should be top priorities, Ocasio-Cortez says
Israel has been “indiscriminately attacking” those in Gaza, and has “a grave responsibility to prevent genocide.”
That’s according to one of the most prominent, outspoken progressives in the House.
The United Nations’ top court on Friday ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave.
More than 26,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its military operations there following the October 7 Hamas attacks. The number of Palestinians dead in Gaza includes more than 10,000 children.
President Biden has come under increased criticism from some on the left for not doing more to criticize and contain Israeli aggression.
NBC News journalist Kristen Welker asked Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) about the issue during an appearance on the network’s program, Meet The Press.
“Some of your colleagues — and we talked about what’s happened at the protests this week — have called the president ‘Genocide Joe.’ Some of your colleagues have accused the president of supporting genocide, including Rashida Tlaib,” Welker said, referring to the Democratic congresswoman from Michigan. “Do you agree with that word, ‘genocide,’ that the president’s been supporting a genocide? Or does that go too far?”
“I think what we are seeing right now throughout the country is that young people are appalled at the violence and the indiscriminate loss of life,” Ocasio-Cortez replied. “We are not just seeing 25,000 people that have died in Gaza. We are seeing the starvation of millions of people, the displacement of over 2 million Gazans.
“We have South Africa that has mounted a court in the ICJ,” she added, referring to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. “The ICJ ruled this week that Israel has a grave responsibility to prevent genocide.”
Ocasio-Cortez offered her overall appraisal of the conflict since October 7.
“We know that Hamas as an organization, it does not have any regard for human life. I think that, in Hamas’ attack on October 7, they knew what they were bringing on to — they knew the violence that they were bringing on,” she said. “And we have seen that. They understood the asymmetric attack that Israel will put out. Israel has been indiscriminately attacking Gazans, and we have seen over 25,000 Palestinians have been killed, over 70 percent of whom are women and children.
“This — using 25,000 lives as leverage and the idea that that is going to pressure Hamas, they are accountable to very little,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “But I think what is most important is saving these lives, ensuring the release of hostages, and, in my view, negotiating a ceasefire.”
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