Washington DC - Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has lashed out on social media over criticism of her decision to vote against an amendment to block US funding for Israel's Iron Dome air defense system.

"Google is free. If you’re saying I voted for military funding, you are lying. Receipts attached," AOC posted on X on Monday.

"Drag me for my positions all you want, but lying about them doesn’t make you part of the 'left.' If you believe neo-nazis are welcome and operating in good faith, you can have them!"

In her statement, AOC pointed toward her vote against the $831.5-billion Department of Defense Appropriations Act approved in the House last Friday. She did not address criticism of her stance on the Iron Dome.

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The New York Democrat, widely considered as a possible future presidential contender, had voted against an amendment, proposed by Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, to block $500 million in funding for Israel's missile defense system.

Many commenters argued AOC's post appeared to cast Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and Al Green of Texas – all Democrats who supported the failed amendment – as sympathetic toward neo-Nazis.

Others slammed the congresswoman for opposing a measure to reduce military aid to Israel amid its longstanding occupation of Palestine and brutal assault on the people of Gaza.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) National Political Committee said it was "deeply disappointed" by AOC's decision.

"Our country is obsessed with war. Every year, Congress votes to invest in death and destruction instead of health care, housing, clean air and water, or ending child poverty here at home," Tlaib, a DSA member and the only Palestinian American in Congress, said in a statement after the vote.

AOC immediately sought to defend her vote against the Iron Dome amendment last week.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene's amendment does nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of US munitions being used in Gaza. Of course I voted against it," she wrote in an X post on Friday.

"What it does do is cut off defensive Iron Dome capacities while allowing the actual bombs killing Palestinians to continue," she added, while noting that US military aid is being used to "perpetuate the genocide in Gaza."

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Many supporters of Palestinian liberation spurned AOC's distinction between supposedly defensive and offensive aid to Israel.

"We unequivocally reject this line of argument from AOC, as should the broader Palestine movement and the Left," the Palestinian Youth Movement responded in a statement on social media.

"Israel is able to continue its genocide unabated precisely because of the endless flow of both offensive and defensive weaponry to its arsenal. That is because every dollar that Israel does not have to spend defending its own citizenry, is an extra dollar that can be spent murdering and maiming Palestinians," the group explained.

"AOC’s cynical rationale betrays the intelligence of her own base who elected her into office. Israel should be completely embargoed and sanctioned, not provided the defensive weapons to safeguard itself from consequences from continuing a genocide. Shame."