Ocasio-Cortez Signs On As Co-Sponsor Of Omar’s BDS Resolution
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2019. Image by Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
By Aiden Pink July 31, 2019
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has signed on as a co-sponsor of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s resolution defending boycotts, a document that is widely understood as a specific show of support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
The resolution does not specifically mention Israel, but Omar told Al-Monitor before filing the resolution that the document was an “opportunity for us to explain why it is we support a nonviolent movement, which is the BDS movement.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Omar were two of 17 members of Congress to vote against a resolution condemning BDS last week.
“Ultimately it comes down to protecting free speech,” Ocasio-Cortez told BuzzFeed News after last week’s vote. “And my concern with being overly punitive on nonviolent forms of protest is that it forces people into other channels and I would hate to be a part of, you know, paving that kind of path.”
Omar’s resolution has attracted controversy because its preamble defends historic boycotts of Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa — leading opponents to claim that the measure implicitly compares Israel to those two regimes.
The other two members of Ocasio-Cortez and Omar’s “Squad,” Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, are also co-sponsors of the resolution — though Pressley, unlike the three others, voted in favor of the anti-BDS resolution. Pressley explained in a subsequent Twitter thread that she was an opponent of the BDS movement but wanted to show support for the right to boycott in general. Civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis, an original co-sponsor of Omar’s resolution who is also against BDS, shared similar language.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a presidential candidate who voted for the anti-BDS resolution, signed on as a co-sponsor to Omar’s resolution on Tuesday. There are 15 co-sponsors in total so far.
Resolutions are symbolic measures that do not have the force of law.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Culture PEN America cancels New Voices festival over author outrage at Gaza response
-
Fast Forward Major Jewish funder steps back as Columbia University rocked by anti-Israel protests
-
Fast Forward House overwhelmingly passes Israel aid, even as dissent grows in both parties
-
Fast Forward Columbia U. makes classes remote after weekend of anti-Israel protests intimidate and threaten Jewish students
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Chicago man charged with hate crime for attack of two Jewish DePaul students
-
Fast Forward In the ashes of the governor’s mansion, clues to a mystery about Josh Shapiro’s Passover Seder
-
Fast Forward Itamar Ben-Gvir is coming to America, with stops at Yale and in New York City already set
-
Fast Forward Texas Jews split as lawmakers sign off on $1B private school voucher program
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.