American progressives have criticized the Biden administration’s support for Israel amid its bombing of Gaza.
Prominent American progressive Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has called Israel an “apartheid state” amid the ongoing process bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is part of a cadre of progressive lawmakers who have been increasingly critical of U.S. support for Israel and have called on President Joe Biden’s administration to adopt a harder line in the middle of the most recent climb.
“I don’t care how a spokesman tries to turn this around,” he tweeted on Ocasio-Cortez on Saturday along with a video of an Israeli airstrike demolishing a building that had media offices, including those of Al Jazeera and the Associated Press.
“If the Biden administrator can’t resist an ally, who can he resist?” she wrote.
In a subsequent tweet, he added: “Apartheid states are not democracies.”
This is happening with the support of the United States.
I don’t care how a spokesperson tries to spin this. The United States vetoed the call for a UN ceasefire.
If the Biden administrator can’t resist any allies, who can?
How can they credibly claim that they stand for human rights? https://t.co/bXY99O3Wqp
– Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 15, 2021
Apartheid states are not democracies.
– Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 15, 2021
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who in a passionate speech in the House on Friday, denounced “Israel’s apartheid government,” also tweeted the statement, as Congresswoman Cori Bush did. .
Although human rights groups, recently Human Rights Watch, have increasingly called for Israeli treatment of Palestinians. equates to racist governance the label is that it favors Israeli Jews over Palestinians in both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories rarely used by American lawmakers.
Apartheid states are not democracies. https://t.co/oF30zaqM4v
– Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) May 15, 2021
Yet while firm support for Israel remains the overwhelming norm in Congress, it has become a public skepticism about U.S. policy. more frequent among legislators.
As of Sunday, Israeli attacks had killed more than 180 Palestinians, including at least 52 children, in the Gaza Strip since the escalation began on Monday. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have killed at least 13 Palestinians.
Israel has reported ten deaths, including two children, from attacks with Hamas rockets and armed groups launched from Gaza.
“Stop being apologists”
The Biden administration has repeatedly stressed Israel’s right to defend itself while dodging criticism of Israeli actions over the past week.
In a reading of a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, the White House said Biden “noted that this current period of conflict has tragically claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children.”
The White House added that Biden “raised concerns about the safety of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection.”
Some prominent lawmakers have also taken advantage of the escalation to question the approximately $ 4 billion in aid the U.S. gives to Israel annually with virtually no conditions.
“We can no longer be apologists for the right-wing Netanyahu government and its anti-democratic and racist behavior,” Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in a New York Times publication Friday.
“We need to change course and take a balanced approach, one that maintains and strengthens international law with respect to the protection of civilians, as well as existing U.S. legislation under which the provision of U.S. military aid must not allow for human rights abuses, ”he wrote.
