AOC under fire over 'gibberish' Arabic-language election posters

US Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has come under fire after running a poster campaign featuring disjointed and illegible Arabic text, amid broader concerns over her party's stance on Israel's war on Gaza.

The posters had sought to encourage Americans to vote in the upcoming 4 November presidential election.

"Get Out the Vote operation is organizing in [five] languages at once!" Ocasio-Cortez, known as AOC, wrote on X, accompanied with a picture of her campaign posters.

The Arabic-language posters, however, displayed displayed disjointed letters written backwards. Arabic, which is written in a cursive form, is usually written right-to-left.

The New York lawmaker deleted the post shortly after social media users highlighted the mistake.

"This flyer that team AOC made to get out the vote in Arabic is spelt backwards and the letters are not connected," wrote journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin on X. "Pure gibberish. A true metaphor for her efforts to connect to Arab voters = not caring enough about the basics like our right to life."

"Democrats keep finding ways to show Arab Americans how little they care! (The Arabic flyer has the letters disconnected and backwards…something that would’ve been noticed by anyone with the most rudimentary understanding of the language)" wrote journalist Mohammad Alsaafin.

someone didn’t hire an arabic translator bc what the hell is this … https://t.co/oV7LrJaG2e pic.twitter.com/0AFVgp3fOz

— Hurt CoPain (@SaeedDiCaprio) October 29, 2024

AOC, who is considered on the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party, has come under fire for her allegedly contradictory stances on the upcoming US election and the Biden administration's support for the war on Gaza.

While issuing statements critical of Israel's war and calling the onslaught an "unfolding genocide", she has simultaneously urged support for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — the two figures who have overseen Washington's "ironclad" support for Israel amid its year-long war.

Washington has provided increased aid and weapons for Israel in its war on Gaza, while also providing Tel Aviv with political and diplomatic cover at the UN and other international bodies.