https://arab.news/9ngn4
- New York congresswoman: Young Americans nationwide ‘appalled’ at ‘indiscriminate loss of life’
- She says Gazans facing ‘mass inhumanity’ but stops short of accusing Israel of genocide
LONDON: People who accuse Israel of genocide should not be attacked for their beliefs, US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has warned.
However, she stopped short of accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip. In an interview with “Meet the Press” following the International Court of Justice’s demand that Israel work to prevent genocide in the Palestinian enclave, the New York representative said “large amounts of Americans” think genocide is happening in Gaza, and they should not be tossed “out of our public discourse.”
She told the show: “The fact that (the ICJ) said there’s a responsibility to prevent it, the fact that this word is even in play, the fact that this word is even in our discourse, I think demonstrates the mass inhumanity that Gazans are facing.
“Whether you are an individual that believes this is a genocide — which by the way, in our polling we are seeing large amounts of Americans concerned specifically with that word.
“So, I don’t think that it is something to completely toss someone out of our public discourse for using.”
She added: “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.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, did not go as far as some of her Democratic allies.
Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, for instance, has accused US President Joe Biden of supporting genocide for his stance toward Israel since it began operations in Gaza.
Ocasio-Cortez, who previously condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel “in the strongest possible terms,” said: “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.”