Randa Darwish
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's big victory in the Democratic primary for New York’s 14th congressional district defeating longtime Representative Joseph Crowley has not been the only shocking news for many. At the same time, her pro-Palestinian views criticizing Israel and the killing of Palestinians have been raising questions on the Democratic party’s position towards Israel.
On June 26, 2018, the 28-year-old activist and former Bernie Sanders volunteer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America Ocasio-Cortez scored 57.5% against Crowley for a district of New York City. She will now face a Republican opponent in November in the general election, and if she wins, she would be the youngest woman elected to Congress ever.
The win of a member of Democratic Socialists of America was considered as a major victory for progressives in the US and an indicator for a shift in the Democratic Party base toward the Palestine-Israel conflict. It also exposed a new generation to US politics.
Cortez strongly condemned the May 14 Israel’s slaughtering of Palestinians on Gaza border, when Israel killed 62 peaceful protesters calling it a “massacre,” and calling out Democrats to stop being silent about the Israeli killing of civilian Palestinians.
Her tweet triggered a wave of mixed reactions among the young American generation indicating a clear change in the way Americans are now perceiving Israeli acts against Palestinians.
Bseide being praised and hailed by many supporters of the Palestine Cause, Ocasio-Cortez,
She was accused of being pro-Hamas,
Other tweets accused her of re-tweeting an Arab media outlet without having enough information on the topic,
As so often, many replies from Israelis justifying killing more than 60 civilians, including children, suggesting that these individuals were armed or paid by Hamas.
Brooklyn College history professor KC Johnson said on her win: “We’re seeing a pattern where the activist core of the Democratic Party is becoming highly critical of Israel almost as a default position.”
Later on, when she was asked why did she post such a tweet, Ocasio-Cortez compared what happened in Gaza to the civil rights movements in the US in addition to her Puerto-Rican roots that relate her to Palestinian protesters. “Puerto Rico is a colony that is granted no rights, that has no civic representation,” she said. “If 60 of us were shot in protest of the U.S. negligence in FEMA I couldn’t imagine if there were silence on that,” she added.
For the most part, Ocasio-Cortez is focusing on domestic issues like “Medicare-for-All”, abolishing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the latest US policies on separating illegal immigrant children from their families at the border.
