Ocasio-Cortez, ‘Squad’ Members Sued For Inciting Anti-Semitic Violence At Columbia
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other members of her far-left congressional “Squad” are facing significant legal issues, according to a report from Fox News on Sunday.
AOC and her colleagues are involved in a class-action lawsuit accusing them of inciting anti-Semitic violence at Columbia University earlier this summer. The lawsuit, filed by five students who remain anonymous, names Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic Reps. Jamal Bowman of New York, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Additionally, it includes around a dozen anti-Israel organizing groups, Fox reported.
“The Gaza Encampment was extreme and outrageous conduct. It was illegal. It violated university rules. Its occupants harassed, followed, physically blocked, intimidated, and bullied Jewish students,” the lawsuit alleges.
Two of the five students are Jewish. One, identified as “Tim Doe” in the lawsuit, discussed the situation in an interview with the New York Post.
“During the protests, I witnessed numerous offensive and antisemitic signs and messages, including antisemitic skunk posters with the Star of David,” he told The Post.
“In one instance, I was walking with my non-Jewish friends when I was singled out because I was wearing my yarmulke. A leader of the pro-Palestinian protest approached our group and confronted me. He singled me out, yelling that I needed to move, and when I refused, he began to shove me out of the way,” he added.
The encampment at Columbia University garnered international attention as students and even faculty participated in a campus takeover that lasted for weeks.
The protests resulted in classes being moved online and severely restricted access to campus buildings, affecting students preparing for final exams. Consequently, Columbia, along with other universities nationwide, had to cancel its graduation ceremony.
“Those were real damages sustained by the 36,000 students at Columbia who chose to obey university rules, go to class, and pursue their education, only to be frustrated at the finish line by the … acts of their classmates and professors, with the assistance and encouragement of outside activists,” the lawsuit states.
AOC, Bowman, and Omar all voiced support for the pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the time, Fox noted.
Last month, Ocasio-Cortez posted a live video on her Instagram page in which she criticized fellow Democrats, especially those anonymously suggesting that former President Donald Trump might become president again.
She also expressed anger over the perception that when discussing replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, there seems to be an effort to bypass Vice President Kamala Harris.
“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave that they will support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They’re not going to be fully honest, but I’m going to be honest for them.”
“I’m in these rooms. I see what they say in conversations,” she added. “I’m here to tell you that a huge amount of the donor class and a huge amount of these elites and a huge amount of these folks in these rooms that I see that are pushing for President Biden to not be the nominee also are not interested in seeing Vice President being the nominee.”
She went on to refer to Trump as a “neo-Nazi” less than a week after the assassination attempt against him.
“I’m pretty sure a lot of people knew that the President is old. President Biden is very old. Donald Trump is also very old and a racist and a neo-Nazi,” she claimed.
“A lot of people don’t love that we have the same exact match-up all over again, which is to say that the debate didn’t change much at all. It didn’t really change a lot in terms of people’s perceptions, in terms of where the electorate is at and going into the debate,” she concluded.