Tipsheet

AOC-Backed Starbucks Union Cheers for Hamas Terror Attacks

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  October 11, 2023 2:15 PM

As armed Hamas terrorists are beheading Jewish babies, raping innocent women, and executing civilians in the street, Starbucks union workers—backed by far-left Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-VT), socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and brain-dead Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)—have proudly signaled public support for the terrorist invasion of Israel.

Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), voiced "Solidarity with Palestine!" in a series of since-deleted posts across social media. Over the weekend, Starbucks union chapters in progressive strongholds, such as Iowa City, Chicago, and Boston, promoted "Long Live Palestinian Resistance" rallies supporting the Hamas attacks.

"Freeing Palestine was never going to be flowers and baby animals," wrote a Starbucks Workers United member on the X platform, endorsing the terroristic violence hours after Hamas mobilized. "What the f*ck did you expect?" the worker stated.

Starbucks Workers United leader Jaz Brisack, an original organizer of the union, posted: "There's no 'two sides' to apartheid. Free Palestine." As a tactic to disparage the Jewish state, anti-Israel activists like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) oft-accuse Israel of instituting an apartheid. "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free," Brisack has blurted, an antisemitic chant seen as a common call-to-arms for the genocidal erasure of Israel and its people. According to the American Jewish Committee, it's a rallying cry for terrorist organizations and sympathizers from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to Hamas.

In an op-ed letter published by Ole Miss's student-run newspaper, Brisack previously praised PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh as a "freedom fighter," the Washington Free Beacon reported. Claiming she's a "political prisoner," Brisack defended Odeh, who was convicted of coordinating bombings, including an attack at a Jerusalem supermarket that killed two Hebrew University students.

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"[Odeh] has called attention to the fact that Israel, guilty of the crime of apartheid, illegally occupies Palestinian land..." Brisack, a former Rhodes Scholar, penned back in 2017. "We celebrate the resilience, strength, and determination that Odeh embodies."

Big Labor critic Center for Union Facts ran a full-page ad in the New York Post exposing the pro-terrorist rhetoric of Starbucks Workers United's rank and file and calling on the SEIU to condemn its affiliated union's celebration of anti-Israel terrorism.

"The SEIU can't take credit for Workers United's organizing wins and then turn a blind eye when the union posts in defense of violent terrorist attacks," commented Center for Union Facts communications director Charlyce Bozzello in a press statement.

Here's a compilation of the Starbucks Workers United chapters that are on Hamas's side (courtesy of Center for Union Facts):

  • Boston Starbucks Workers United
  • Workers United Upstate
    • Accused Israel of "apartheid occupation"
  • Iowa City Starbucks Workers United
  • Starbucks Workers United Greektown Chicago
    • Reposted a statement about ending the so-called "occupation."
    • Reposted messages seemingly justifying terrorist violence

In-person and online, AOC has repeatedly championed Starbucks Workers United's unionization efforts, including cheering on baristas in Buffalo, New York, who became the first Starbucks store to organize; meeting with unionizing workers in Astoria, Queens; and touting the union-election victory of New York City's flagship roastery in Manhattan's Chelsea Market.

Sanders called the Starbucks union's formation "a tremendous inspiration" and "encouraging to see people all over the country standing up for themselves and each other." The senator added, "[T]ogether, working people can achieve the dignity they deserve." Fetterman declared he "stands" with Starbucks workers and "will always defend" the so-called "Union Way of Life."