By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
On Monday November 4th, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unblocked Dov Hikind from her Twitter account, offering an apology for doing so in the first place. As reported by Hamodia, AOC had only one day left before she would have been forced to make a court appearance to explain her decision to block Hikind from voicing his opinions.
Hikind formerly served for 35-years as Democratic New York State Assemblyman representing Brooklyn‘s Assembly district 48, retiring at the end of 2018. The 69-year old politician still hosts a NYC radio show, and is still outspoken in political matters, particularly relating to Israel and anti-Semitism. He was publicly at odds with the 30-year-old progressive Congress-woman on a range of issues, including her opinions on Israel, her support for BDS, as well as her infamous comment that U.S.-run detention centers for illegal immigrants are “concentration camps.”
Ocasio-Cortez blocked Hikind back in July from her personal @AOC Twitter account. Hikind, together with his lawyer Jacob Weinstein, filed a lawsuit in federal court, contending that this was a violation of his first amendment rights. The judge had ordered Ocasio-Cortez to appear in court Tuesday, which will no longer be required thanks to the resolution in which she unblocked him and apologized.
In her statement on Monday, Ocasio-Cortez said, “I have reconsidered my decision to block Dov Hikind from my Twitter account. Mr. Hikind has a First Amendment right to express his views and should not be blocked for them. In retrospect, it was wrong and improper and does not reflect the values I cherish. I sincerely apologize for blocking Mr. Hikind. Now and in the future, however, I reserve the right to block users who engage in actual harassment or exploit my personal/campaign account, @AOC, for commercial or other improper purposes.”
Hikind responded saying, “ I’d like to commend the congresswoman for coming to the right conclusion about my First Amendment rights. We’ve had and will continue to have very sharp disagreements on a range of policy issues … and I’ll continue to voice my opinion in critical terms as needed. I’ve let her team know that I’m ready to meet anytime, any place, to have a more constructive dialogue rather than remain necessarily adversarial on Twitter. The ball is in her court.”
In his statement, Hikind also said, “this is a big victory for freedom of speech! The consequences of this case are much farther reaching than my own Twitter account, because it affirms the Constitutional right of American citizens to directly petition those in positions of power without the threat of being shut out from conversations that affect everyday life.
And I sincerely hope that this further cements the legal precedent so that other public officials don’t waste people’s time and resources by needlessly blocking them. If you don’t want to hear what someone is telling you on Twitter you can “mute” them without blocking them out of the conversation and depriving citizens of their right to petition.” AOC has not yet directly responded as to whether she has also unblocked her other critics.
