Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez caused controversy in a recent interview when she said America wasn’t founded on capitalism and called Israel an “occupation” force over the Palestinian territories.

The political newcomer — appearing on PBS’s “Firing Line” on Friday — was simply asked, “What is your position on Israel?”

Ocasio-Cortez responded in non-controversial fashion, calling for a two-state solution and Israel’s absolute right to exist.

When pressed to elaborate, Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist, said: “I also think that what people are starting to see, at least, in the occupation of Palestine is just an increasing crisis of humanitarian condition.”

Interviewer Margaret Hoover immediately sought clarification on Ocasio-Cortez’s use of the hot-button word “occupation.”

“Oh I think — what I meant is like the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas and places where Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to their housing and homes,” said Ocasio-Cortez.

She chuckled and tried to laugh off her blunder.

“I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue,” she said. “I just look at things through a human rights lens and I may not use the right words … Middle Eastern politics is not exactly at my kitchen table every night.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center blasted her in a tweet, saying she “knows zero about 3,500 yr relationship of Jewish people to Land of Israel.”

She also got blasted from the left by fellow socialists who thought she was too chummy with Israel.

The leftist Jacobin magazine said the interview was “not good” given her offering “liberal platitudes about a two-state solution.”

Earlier in the show, Ocasio-Cortez was asked about the modern economy, and she predicted that capitalism would come to an end someday.

She also claimed the United States didn’t have capitalist roots.

“Capitalism has not always existed in the world and it will not always exist in the world,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “When this country started … we did not operate on a capitalist economy.”

A rep for Ocasio-Cortez could not be immediately reached for comment Monday night.

Ocasio-Cortez, 28, stunned longtime Congressman Joe Crowley for the Democratic nomination in the Bronx/Queens district.

She’s considered a virtual shoo-in to win in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.