Ocasio-Cortez Retweets PFLP Supporter

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Tuesday retweeted an open supporter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a State Department designated terrorist organization. U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Yousef Munayyer wrote, "AIPAC activist tells NYT the lobby is coming for Congresswoman @AOC @RashidaTlaib and @IlhanMN. 'They are three people who, in my opinion, will not be around for several years.'"

Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are new members of Congress who have drawn criticism for anti-Semitic statements that they claim are just criticisms of Israel. Ocasio-Cortez has defended her two colleagues.

Ocasio-Cortez retweeted Munayyer's post, expressing her disappointment with AIPAC activist Stephen Fiske's statement to the New York Times complaining, "...[T]here seems to be no problem at all with a zero-tolerance stance for simply asking about US foreign policy."

Munayyer openly supports the Socialist PFLP, which rejects any compromise or peace with Israel, by posting its communiques and touting some of its actions.

"The Palestinian liberation movement ... [seeks] to destroy the state of Israel as a military, political and economic establishment which rests on aggression, expansion and organic connection with imperialist interests in our homeland," the PFLP's says in its "Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine – The Aims and Significance of the Palestinian War of Liberation."

The Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement seeks to isolate Israel politically and economically by encouraging boycotts of Israelis goods and the imposition of sanctions on the Jewish state. Munayyer runs the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), the U.S. affiliate of the BDS Palestinian National Committee, which coordinates the BDS movement worldwide.

Munayyer posted a PFLP communiqué in June 2017 announcing a stabbing attack in Jerusalem that killed an Israeli policewoman. It noted the terrorists had been previously faced "imprisonment by the occupation." Other tweets reminded people that the PFLP and other factions including Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah are fighting alongside Hamas "against Israel in this war." In a tweet last April, Munayyer told followers that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh held aloft a picture of imprisoned PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat in a show of solidarity.

His group, the USCPR, made a similar post in 2016 mourning the death of a PFLP terrorist. A vendor at USCPR's convention last summer underscored the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) group's ideological orientation by selling a hat saying "Make Israel Palestine Again."

The Democratic Socialists in America (DSA), to which Ocasio-Cortez belongs, passed a pro-BDS resolution in 2017. After it passed, activists chanted, "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free," a call for Israel's elimination.

Related Topics: John Rossomando, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Yousef Munayyer, PFLP, BDS, anti-Semitism, AIPAC, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Democratic Socialists of America

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