By Charles Dunst/(JTA) – Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York decried the “occupation of Palestine” during a television interview. Appearing July 13 on PBS’s “Firing Line,” Ocasio-Cortez, 28, also described herself as “a firm believer in finding a two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In May, she called the killing of Palestinian protesters by Israeli troops at the Gaza fence a “massacre.” “The lens through which I saw this incident, as an activist, as an organizer – if 60 people were killed in Ferguson, Missouri, if 60 people were killed in the South Bronx, unarmed, if 60 people were killed in Puerto Rico – I just look at that [Gaza] incident more through just, as an incident, and to me, it would just be completely unacceptable if that happened on our shores,” she said.

“Of course the dynamics there, in terms of geopolitics … is very different than people expressing their First Amendment right to protest,” Hoover replied. Israel and its supporters have noted that among those killed in Gaza were members of the Hamas terrorist group. Hamas has acknowledged that 50 of the 61 killed were its members. “Yes,” Ocasio-Cortez conceded, adding, “But I also think that what people are starting to see at least in the occupation … of Palestine [is] just an increasing crisis of humanitarian condition and that to me is just where I tend to come from on this issue.”

Her comments on Israel have prompted criticism from the right and left.

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doing a great service. Her argument is twofold: Israel a colonizing occupier of Palestine, and that she doesn’t know anything about the conflict,” wrote Seth Mandel, op-ed editor of the New York Post, on Twitter. “Accurate: those who think this have no idea what they’re talking about. At least she’s honest.”

Although the Democratic Socialists of America endorses the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Ocasio-Cortez has not discussed her position on the boycott. Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has called Ocasio-Cortez the “future of our party.”

CAP: Congressional nominee Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigning for Zephyr Teachout in New York City, July 12, 2018. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images via JTA)