Vice President Kamala Harris offered sympathy for protesters demanding an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza when she came face to face with a demonstrator who accused the US of being complicit in genocide and said he had point.
Her words will be seized on critics who accuse her of siding with America’s enemies but they also illustrate the complexity of a Middle East crisis spiraling out of control.
The moment is revealed in newly posted video of her visit to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Thursday, which was closed to media.
Harris was telling students she was invested in them when a protester intervenes
‘And in genocide, right? Billions of dollars in genocide?’ the activist said, according to the clip posted by a pro-Palestinian student group.
Harris said she respected his right to speak but that she was in the middle of speaking and that she wanted a ceasefire, a statement that brought cheers from her audience.
Campus police removed the keffiyeh-clad man.
‘But what about the genocide? What about the genocide though?’, he shouted as he left.
And he added: ‘42,000 people are dead. 19,000 children are dead. And you won’t call it a genocide.’
Harris turned back to her audience when calm was restored and said: ‘Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real. That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real and I respect his voice.’
Harris has never used the term ‘genocide’ in describing the military assault on Gaza in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel,
However, she has repeatedly expressed concern at the levels of civilian casualties and has recently stepped up her calls for Israel to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave.
‘The UN reports that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2 weeks. Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid to those in need,’ Harris posted on the social platform X.
Vice President Kamala Harris is under pressure from the left of her party to do more to rein in Israel and an assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 during the past year
She has had to navigate complicated political territory. President Joe Biden has stuck close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as his forces pound the Gaza strip and as many other world leaders have demanded an end to the assault.
That has caused problems for Harris as she tries to hold together support from Muslim-Americans and from Jewish voters.
Critics on X were quick to attack the presidential candidate for her response, with one saying ‘Harris can’t hide her true colors.’
Another said: ‘Harris does not like our most important ally, Israel’.
And in Detroit Saturday when she was asked whether she could lose the election because of anger felt by Arabs and Muslims as well as supporters of the Palestinian cause over civilian deaths in Gaza, she answered by restating the brutality of the Hamas attack on Israel.
‘The first, most tragic story is October 7,’ she said.
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