Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Far-left activists accost AOC, demanding she call Israel’s war on Hamas ‘genocide’

By Jacob Magid 5 March 2024, 4:37 am 7 Edit

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

A far-left, pro-Palestinian activist accosts Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a Brooklyn movie theater on March 4, 2024. (Screen capture/X)
A far-left, pro-Palestinian activist accosts Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a Brooklyn movie theater on March 4, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

Far-left, pro-Palestinian protesters accosted Democratic Squad Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her way out of a movie theater in Brooklyn with her fiancée, demanding that she brand Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza a “genocide.”

Footage shows Ocasio-Cortez angrily telling the handful of hecklers that she has in fact done so, though it was not clear when. In a late January interview, she went as far as to say that a growing number of Americans view the term to accurately describe the situation in Gaza and that they shouldn’t be dismissed.

Monday’s incident appeared to highlight the radical nature of many of the anti-Israel demonstrators in the US, who are turning on some of the most progressive members of Congress, including ones like Ocasio-Cortez who have been very vocal in their criticism of Israel and support for the Palestinian cause.

“You refuse to call it a genocide,” one of the protesters is heard shouting at Ocasio-Cortez as she leaves the theater. “It’s not okay that there’s a genocide happening and you’re not actively against it.”

“You’re lying!” Ocasio-Cortez shouts back, later adding that she doesn’t want to engage with those filming her because she’s convinced they’ll only partially publish her response and take her remarks out of context.

“I already said that it was. And y’all are just gonna pretend that it wasn’t. Over and over again. It’s f—ed up man. And you’re not helping these people,” Ocasio-Cortez says as she walks away.

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