A staffer who joined Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office in November as a legislative assistant has reportedly made a bigoted comment about Israel, calling the Middle East nation a “racist European ethnostate.”
The comment was reportedly made by Hussain Altamimi, who posted a photo of him with the self-described New York Democratic socialist on Instagram, which he captioned, “New beginnings,” Fox News reported.
Altamimi took to the platform last week in which he targeted the United States’ most important ally in the region with the “ethnostate” remark.
“Israel is a racist European ethnostate built on stolen land from its indigenous population!” Altamimi wrote on Christmas Eve, as noted in a screengrab by Fox News Digital.
His remark came in response to a previous post that he shared from a user account called “Let’s Talk Palestine,” which said that a “racial hierarchy” exists in Israel.
“This reveals the principle underpinning Israeli apartheid: It’s not about where you’re born,” says the shared post, according to the network’s digital service. “It’s about whether you’re Jewish or non-Jewish. Your ethnicity determines your rights [and] level in the racial hierarchy.”
“Israel is an exclusive ethnostate, established to serve one ethnic group at the expense of another,” the post added.
The outlet also reported that Let’s Talk Palestine is listed as a “Nonprofit Organization” on its Instagram profile, but there are several anti-Israel posts on the account.
One post is titled “The Ethnic Cleansing of Jerusalem,” which claims that the Jewish state has partaken in the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians since Israel took control of East Jerusalem in the late 1960s after the Six-Day War.
An additional post uses Pokémon cards to portray “key Palestinian actors” including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, both of which are considered to be terrorist organizations by the United States.
For her part, Ocasio-Cortez, as well as other “Squad” members Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the latter of whom is of Palestinian descent, have regularly been accused of being anti-Semitic. Earlier this year, for instance, she called Israel an “Apartheid state” and added, “Apartheid states aren’t democracies.”
Also, as noted by Fox Digital, “Rasha Mubarak, a Palestinian activist whose firm was sent $96,000 in payments between March 2020 and March 2021 for ‘fundraising consulting’ from [Tlaib’s] campaign, has repeatedly called Israel an ‘apartheid’ state, which has been echoed by Tlaib herself.”
But under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), none of the Squad members have been sanctioned or otherwise punished for their anti-Israel remarks, much to the chagrin of GOP leaders, especially after some rank-and-file Republicans have been removed from their committee assignments by Pelosi following comments they have made.
Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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