The US Democratic Party was sent into shock this week when a 28-year-old former organizer for Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid ousted a party veteran from his perch in Congress on a campaign of social justice, equality and support of the Palestinian people.
"Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else. Democrats can’t be silent about this anymore.”- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. https://t.co/QEemzFb3SW pic.twitter.com/bZJCiHTkq8
— The IMEU (@theIMEU) June 29, 2018
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the daughter of working-class immigrants, won the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th Congressional District on Tuesday, beating ten-term incumbent Joe Crowley, who was one of the favorites to become the party leader.
She just pulled off the biggest political upset of the year.
Now Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells @Dena about her vision for what America can be. pic.twitter.com/8fuL3fIiiv
— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 29, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez’s view on Israel and Palestine received extensive media attention. The Democratic candidate expressed her support for the Palestinians during the Great March of Return in Gaza in which over 130 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and a further 13,000 were injured.
#OcasioCortez likened the colonization of #Palestine
to the colonization of Puerto Rico, shes no accidental ally, shes clear& check out this headline
"Who Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Pro-Palestinian Socialist Winner of New York's Primary?"https://t.co/v53Zltr21w
— Lamis Deek لميس ديك (@Lamis_Deek) June 27, 2018
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:
“This is a massacre. I hope my peers have the moral courage to call it such. No state or entity is absolved of mass shootings of protesters. There is no justification. Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else.”
Top story: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "This is a massacre.
I hope my… https://t.co/nmB3Y1Dd7Y, see more https://t.co/pHBBHwSnl5
— Ramy Jabbar (@Ramdog1980) June 27, 2018
Glenn Greenwald, a pundit with The Intercept, said the tweet got a lot of attention because it’s rare to see someone in mainstream politics talking in “such clear moral terms denouncing the Israeli government’s military aggression in that way”.
Asked by Greenwald if she felt she needed to take such a tough stance against Israel despite the political cost, Ocasio-Cortez said she was compelled to take the position she took regarding Palestine on moral grounds.
Referring to civil rights and labor rights protests held in the US in recent years, Ocasio-Cortez added:
“My background is as an educator, an organizer, and an activist. And I think I was primarily compelled on moral grounds because I can only imagine if 60 people were shot and killed in Ferguson, or if 60 people were shot in killed in the West Virginia teacher strikes.”
Live: #Deconstructed host @mehdirhasan is interviewing @SenSanders about the massacre in Gaza and the implications of violating the Iran nuclear deal. Watch now on our Facebook page: https://t.co/bzua1XsFkf
— The Intercept (@theintercept) May 14, 2018
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez’s former boss, has also taken similarly hard lines against the Israeli government.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
Love her Patform, but having a problem with her view on “Hillary”, as I and many Americans, on both sides, do not care to see Ms. H.R. Clinton in any power position after the whole Hillary/Debbie/DNC BS in the 2016 Primaries. They all conspired and acted on STEALING the peoples’ vote in the process. Some of us left the “Party” then. We do not respect US, by their actions, so many of US do not respect or want anything to do with them.