Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia sharply criticized the Trump administration on Tuesday after the State Department announced it would stop issuing visas to Palestinian children seeking medical care amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Why It Matters
Greene has been an outspoken critic of U.S. policy toward Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza, which the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reports has killed over 60,000 Palestinians.
Recently, she became the first Republican lawmaker to describe Israel’s military operations in Gaza as a “genocide,” citing claims that the blockade and attacks have contributed to widespread starvation in the territory.
What to Know
On Tuesday, Greene posted a lengthy message on social media condemning two recent actions by the State Department—one related to Israel’s Gaza policy, and the other involving the arrest and release of an Israeli official accused of soliciting sex from a minor.
“Two recent decisions made by the State Department both involve children,” Greene wrote on X. “We need to be the America that allows war-torn children to come here for life-saving surgeries and the America that never releases a foreign child sex predator that our great law enforcement officials caught. But in this circumstance, those war-torn children are from Gaza and this foreign child sex predator is from Israel and works directly for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
The State Department has denied involvement in the release of Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, a senior official in Israel’s National Cyber Directorate. Alexandrovich was one of eight individuals charged last week following a sting operation targeting child sex predators, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported.
According to Reuters, Alexandrovich was released and returned to Israel, facing felony sex crime charges.
Greene questioned the decision on social media: “Would it be antisemitic to drag Netanyahu’s Cyber Executive Director back and prosecute this pos to the full extent of the law and at the same time let Palestinian kids who had their limbs and bodies blown apart receive surgeries in America?”
She continued, “I’m not saying bring in refugees or use taxpayer dollars, not at all, but when did America’s heart grow so cold to refuse innocent children privately funded surgeries and then let them return home after recovery? Wouldn’t we allow Israeli children if they were the ones needing surgery? Or war-torn children from any other country?”
The State Department announced Saturday that it would pause all visitor visas for people from Gaza to conduct a “full and thorough review of the process and procedures” for granting medical-humanitarian visas.
The halt followed a social media campaign by far-right activist and influencer Laura Loomer, who claimed, without evidence, that the humanitarian group HEAL Palestine was “mass importing GAZANS into the US” under the guise of medical aid. Loomer’s posts centered on the organization’s August 4 announcement that 11 critically injured children, ages 6 to 15, had arrived in the U.S. for treatment.
Greene, who has previously promoted misinformation and antisemitic conspiracy theories, accused the U.S. of being “subservient” to Israel. She wrote: “And the most concerning question is when and how did America become so subservient to Israel that we immediately release a CHILD SEX PREDATOR after arrest, with a 100% locked-up case with evidence, and let him fly back home to Israel??”
“Would we do that with a Mexican child sex predator? Chinese child sex predator? Any other country’s child sex predator? I know God does not discriminate in his love for children. Why would we?” she added.
What People Are Saying
The State Department clarified on X Monday: “The Department of State is aware that Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, an Israeli citizen, was arrested in Las Vegas and given a court date for charges related to soliciting sex electronically from a minor. He did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge pending a court date. Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false.”
Loomer wrote on X: “The Trump administration needs to shut this abomination down ASAP before a family member of one of these GAZANS goes rogue and kills Americans for HAMAS.”
On Saturday, the State Department stated on X: “All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.”
What Happens Next
It remains uncertain when—or if—the State Department will resume granting humanitarian parole to Gazan children in need of medical care.
