Ritchie Torres speaks to the media in Bronx, N.Y. on Nov. 3, 2020. (Adam Hunger / AP Photo)
SRDTF News
UPDATED 12:29 PM PT – Monday, December 13, 2021
Democrat congressman Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) slammed his own party for supporting the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement against Israel.
While speaking to the Israeli-American Council over the weekend, the progressive described how struck he was with just how much hatred he has received for supporting Israel. He said he’s received death threats and has been the target of a campaign by the Democratic Socialists of America to silence him politically.
Rep. Torres described a bizarre encounter he had with a Queers for Palestine activist, pointing out that Palestine doesn’t tolerate homosexuality.
“And so I asked her, she was LGBTQ, what is your opinion of Hamas?” explained the New York lawmaker. “And she said I support Hamas because Hamas represents the liberation of the Palestinian people, and at that moment I found myself in a state of shock. For a moment, I thought I was hallucinating.”
Congressman Ritchie Torres at the #IACSummit. The stupidity of the #BDS movement is overwhelming to the point that #LGBTQ activists support an Islamic terror organization such as Hamas which is known to murder any and all LGBTQ Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/h0bJm7hkvq
— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) December 12, 2021
Rep. Torres said he feels that many progressives, which he normally considers himself a part of, have blurred the lines too much between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.