Ocasio-Cortez Has ‘No Plans’ To Travel To Israel — Or Anywhere Else — Right Now

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Image by Getty Images

By Alyssa Fisher, Ari FeldmanDecember 12, 2018

Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will not join other new members of congress on an AIPAC-affiliated trip to Israel later this year, and does not have plans to go on any other trips to the region.

“She wants to make sure that she’s getting a full picture of what daily life is like in the region,” Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez, told the Forward.

When asked if Ocasio-Cortez believes she would not get a full picture of daily life in the region on an AIPAC trip, Trent said, “We’re just not making any plans for taking trips right now.”

JewishInsider had reported that the newly elected congresswoman wouldn’t be attending AIPAC’s trip.

Trent added that Ocasio-Cortez is not planning to go on Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s separate trip to Israel and to the West Bank, and that no members of Congress have directly urged her to go on any trip to the region. Trent said he has no sense of when her first trip to the region might be.

Ocasio-Cortez has said she is in favor of a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Ocasio-Cortez recently revealed for the first time that she has Sephardic Jewish heritage.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at feldman@forward.com. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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