Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) accused the Biden administration of participating in “gross human rights violations” by sending military aid to Israel.
During a virtual town hall, AOC said the United States should “just defund Israel and send funding and aid to Gaza.”
“Forces that are recipients of U.S. military aid cannot be engaging in gross human rights violations,” she stated. “And if they are engaged in gross human rights violations, then that aid must be either pulled, reconsidered, conditioned, etc.”
“What we are witnessing is the gross violation of human rights in Gaza, and that is being done with U.S. military assistance,” the representative added. “I don’t think that the American people want to see our public resources going to finance gross human rights violations.”
Earlier this month, more than 500 employees and staffers in the Biden government signed a letter calling for the president to push a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“We represent a coalition of Biden-Harris Administration political appointees and civil servants, positioned across the domestic and foreign policy spheres, working in federal agencies, departments, independent agencies, and the White House,” the letter begins, according to the New York Times.
“We call on President Biden to urgently demand a ceasefire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza strip.”
The United Nations General Assembly recently passed a draft resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire.
According to the U.N.’s press release, Riyad Mansour, the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine, said, “We will focus on the unequivocal message this august Assembly has sent to our people that the overwhelming majority of the people of the world stand with you, stand with the people in the Gaza Strip.”
“They bear witness to your suffering,” Mansour stated. “They feel your pain. And they have not forgotten you and will not forsake you.”
