JT: You gave a very forceful speech on the House floor Friday about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. You called on President Biden to cut off U.S. military aid to Israel. I think we have a clip of part of what you said. Let's roll that.
AOC on the House floor: If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like. Open your eyes. It looks like the forced famine of 1.1 million innocents. We must write our story in this moment of what it means and who we are as Americans. And our story must be not that we were good men who did nothing.
JT: Now, clearly not enough aid is getting in. Clearly, the conditions for the Palestinian people are horrific and much more needs to be done. Genocide is a word that has serious and specific connotations and allegations. It's defined by the intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. So you just to clarify here, you believe the Israeli military, the Israeli government, are actively trying. They intend to destroy the Palestinian people and not that what's happening is horrible, but it's happening because Israel is going after the terrorists of Hamas who attacked them on October 7th. And Hamas embeds within the civilian population.
AOC: Well, Jake, you're absolutely right. This word is extremely serious. It's one that's taken with extraordinary gravity. And to me, the threshold of intent is a high one. It is a serious one and is not one that is made lightly. However, when we look at the precipice of what is happening with a forced famine of 1.1 million Gazans where multiple governments, NGOs and even officials within the United States State Department have stated themselves plainly that the Israeli government and leaders in the Israeli government are intentionally denying, blocking, and slow walking this aid and are precipitating a mass famine.
I believe we have crossed the threshold of intent. It is horrific. I think it is extremely clear and it is extremely important that all people understand the difference between people and their governments, Israelis and the Israeli government. Palestinians from Hamas. But what we are seeing here, I think with a forced famine, is beyond our ability to deny or explain away. There is no targeting of Hamas in precipitating a mass famine of a million people, half of whom are children.
JT: So I asked Israeli officials about your speech, and they say we are allowing hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza every single day. They're trying to increase those numbers. They have to inspect the cargo to make sure no weapons are getting in, weapons that would be used by Hamas against the people of Israel. They also, Israeli officials also argue this war could end tomorrow if Hamas freed the hostages and lay down the arms. Do you disagree?
AOC: I do disagree because when we are talking about famine, the actions of Hamas should not be tied to whether a three year old can eat. The actions of Hamas do not justify forcing thousands, hundreds of thousands of people to eat grass as their bodies consume themselves. We and the Israeli government have a right to go after Hamas. But we are talking about a population of millions of innocent Palestinians. We are talking about collective punishment, which is in justifiable. And the excuses that the Israeli government is giving about what they are and are not allowing simply do not square with what the UK government is stating, with what international aid organizations are stating, and even what our own State Department officials are stating, which is that they are not allowing aid to go through. When they're talking about inspections, we're talking about U.S. aid. And so I think that if we are to operate as allies, then we must operate in good faith to uphold the principles of democracy, which includes respect for human rights, and also proving the value of our democracy, which is that we are different from other types of regimes with no regard for innocent people.
JT: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, thank you for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
AOC: Thank you.
www.newsweek.com
