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AOC Claims That Palestinian Children Are in Cages in West Bank

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) alleged that Palestinian children are being put in cages during a February 13 event.
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February 15, 2022
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) questions Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during a House Financial Services Committee hearing on “Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy” in Washington, U.S. July 10, 2019. REUTERS/Erin Scott

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) alleged that Palestinian children are being put in cages during a February 13 event.

Jewish Insider (JI) reported that Ocasio-Cortez was speaking at a campaign rally for Greg Casar, who is running for Congress in Texas. She was heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters at the rally; in response, Ocasio-Cortez declared that she supports “the rights of Palestinians and Palestinian children.” She went on to say that “believing in the basic human dignity and the ability for a person to not be jailed or beaten for who they are… does not mean that you are bigoted against any other community” and that “I don’t believe that a child should be in a cage on our border and I don’t believe a child should be in a cage in the West Bank.”

Her remark on cages resulted in criticism on Twitter.

“.@AOC, you know as well as we do that there are no Palestinian children ‘in cages’ in the West Bank,” the American Jewish Committee tweeted. “This kind of gross misinformation hurts chances for reasonable discussion and furthers harmful biases. You must apologize for these baseless allegations.”

“.@RepAOC demonizing Jews at a time of raging #Antisemitism in NYC,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center similarly tweeted. “Throwing children into cages is [inhumane] and cruel. Prove it or apologize. You are legitimizing hatred against Jewish people everywhere.”

“This should go without saying, but Israel does not have children in cages in the West Bank, @AOC,” Israel War Room tweeted. “This vicious libel mirrors the libels that have plagued Jewish civilization for centuries.”

United With Israel similarly tweeted: “Dear @AOC, I also don’t believe that children should be in cages. Please reply with one example of a Palestinian child being held in a cage by the State of Israel. Ever.  Looking forward to hearing from you, Israel.”

The JI report also noted that earlier on February 13, Ocasio-Cortez was also heckled by pro-Palestinian protesters at another event put on by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter in Austin, TX. Ocasio-Cortez responded to the protesters there by arguing that the word “Palestine” is “banned” and “censored.” “We don’t talk about it,” she said. “No one knows about it,” she said. “Thank you for bringing it up, honestly, because we shouldn’t have to tiptoe around these things.”

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