Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a member of "the Squad" of extreme left-leaning House Democrats, said Monday that antisemitism is undermining the "progressive community."
Ocasio-Cortez, a harsh critic of Israel's military operation against Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, made her comments during an online discussion on antisemitism and the "fight for democracy" on X with Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and Stacy Burdett, a former staffer at the Anti-Defamation League.
"Antisemitism is an assault on our values as Americans, and especially as progressives," she said, according to The Hill. "Antisemitism is also a threat to a community that is a vital partner in our struggles against injustice. So when the Jewish community is threatened, the progressive movement is undermined."
Ocasio-Cortez herself has been accused of making antisemitic remarks, including a now-deleted Christmas Eve message that drew parallels between Jesus' persecutors and present-day Israel, invoking a historic charge that Jews killed Jesus.
She reportedly wrote on Instagram that Jesus was born in "modern-day Palestine" under a government conducting "a massacre of innocents." The New Testament states, however, that Jesus lived within the borders of Israel and was killed by Romans ruling the territory.
Ocasio-Cortez also has rallied to the defense of fellow Squad members Democrat Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Tlaib was censured by the House for antisemitic comments. Omar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over comments directed at Israel, and censure resolutions have been drawn up against her.
Ocasio-Cortez emphasized Monday that "criticism of the Israeli government is not inherently antisemitic, and criticism of Zionism is not automatically antisemitism." Many Jews who are Zionist — those who belief in self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland of Israel — reportedly link antisemitism with anti-Zionism.
Ocasio-Cortez admitted antisemitism is on the rise in the U.S., as noted during anti-Israel protests that have rocked college campuses since Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
"At the same time, it is also true that accusations and false accusations of antisemitism are wielded against people of color and women of color by bad faith political actors," she said, according to The Hill.
Spitalnick said Jews and all communities are unsafe if communities are pitted against one another and if the vast majority of American Jews are told they're unwelcome in progressive spaces for having a connection or relationship to Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported.
"We'll never be able to come together to advance the sort of inclusive future we need," Spitalnick said. "Ultimately, our safety is inextricably linked and bound up with one another's and with our democracy."
In a post on X on Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez slammed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) while responding to a report the group has been spending millions in Democrat primaries to boost moderates over progressives.
"Hmm it's almost like AIPAC functions as a political slush fund for Republican billionaires and should not have influence in the Democratic Party, let alone our primaries," she wrote.