Ocasio-Cortez withdraws from Rabin memorial event after criticism

Jerusalem (QNN) – United States Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has withdrawn from an event commemorating former Israeli occupation’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the 25th anniversary of his assassination.

In a brief email, a spokesperson for the representative from New York said she would not be participating in the October 20 commemoration organised by Americans for Peace Now, a US-based group.

Her office did not elaborate on the reason behind the reversal, but pointed to a tweet Ocasio-Cortez wrote earlier on Friday in which she said, “this event and my involvement was presented to my team differently from how it’s now being promoted.”

The spokesperson did not provide further details.

The decision came after Palestinians and Palestinian advocacy groups criticised Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democratic congresswoman who also goes by AOC, for planning to honour the former Israeli leader, who was assassinated 25 years ago.

Rabin, who served as Israel’s prime minister from 1974-1977 and from 1992 until his assassination in 1995, is remembered by Palestinians for harshly cracking down on the First Intifada uprising that began in the late 1980s against the Israeli occupation.

Serving as war minister at the time, Rabin is believed to have instructed Israeli soldiers to “break the bones” of Palestinian demonstrators involved in the uprising. He was known to Palestinians as the “bone crusher“.

In June, Ocasio-Cortez was among four progressive House Democrats who wrote to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling on the US to cut assistance to the occupying state of Israel should it proceed with since-shelved plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

Ocasio-Cortez is one of a number of freshman lawmakers who have questioned traditional Democratic support for Israel.