“Real” controversy over Harris’ response to anti-Israel heckler’s charge of genocide

Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris pauses while speaking during a campaign rally at the Rawhide Event Center on Oct. 10, 2024 in Chandler, Arizona. Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.

(JNS) — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, appeared to suggest at a campaign event in Milwaukee that the Jewish state is guilty of committing genocide.

After a heckler interrupted the vice president at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee event on Oct. 17 and called Israel genocidal, Harris said, “I’m speaking right now.”

“I know what you’re speaking of. I want the ceasefire. I want the war to end, and I respect your right to speak, but I am speaking right now,” Harris added, per the New York Post.

After saying “what about the genocide” and yelling “19,000 children are dead, and you won’t call it a genocide,” the keffiyeh-clad man was removed.

“Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real,” Harris said. “That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real and I respect his voice.”

“The vice president has never previously suggested that Israel’s defensive war in Gaza amounts to a genocide of Palestinian people,” per the Post.

The Harris campaign clarified on Oct. 20 that the vice president does not believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“The vice president did not and does not agree with the protester,” a campaign official told Israel’s Channel 12 news.

“Kamala Harris caters to the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas lunatics. Absolutely shameful,” wrote Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “She’s dangerously unprepared to be president.”

“It’s ‘real’ that Israel is committing genocide? No. That’s a lie, and people like Kamala who repeat it are liars,” wrote Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).

“Let’s be clear: it is not ‘real’ that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It’s a flat-out lie,” the Republican Jewish Coalition wrote. “Kamala Harris’s spreading of outrageous anti-Israel lies puts Jewish lives at risk. Absolutely shameful.”

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote that “it’s not real. It’s a blood libel, and Harris once again shows everyone with half a brain where she really stands.”

Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren on Oct. 20 called for the White House to state unequivocally that Jerusalem is not committing genocide in Gaza, after Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to equivocate on the issue.

Writing on X, Oren said her remarks in Wisconsin set “a very dangerous precedent.”

“I felt deep shock when I watched the video in which Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed a serious accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” Oren tweeted.

“This is the first time the White House has been linked to a defamation that threatens the legitimacy and security of the State of Israel. I demand that the U.S. administration issue an immediate and unequivocal denial and make it clear in no uncertain terms that there is no place for such baseless accusations, which harm not only Israel but also the relationship between the two countries.”