Harris campaign says she did not agree with protester accusing Israel of genocide

Heckler also claimed ‘19,000 children dead’ in Gaza, VP said he’s ‘right’ about war needing to end, and ‘what he’s talking about, it’s real,’ prompting accusations she thinks Israel committing genocide

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about the killing of Hamas's top leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza, on October 17, 2024, following a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. (AP Photo/ Jacquelyn Martin)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about the killing of Hamas's top leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza, on October 17, 2024, following a campaign rally at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. (AP Photo/ Jacquelyn Martin)

An official from Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign said Sunday that she “did not and does not agree” with a heckler who accused Israel of perpetrating a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during a campaign event a day earlier in Wisconsin.

The Democratic presidential nominee was speaking to students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee while on the campaign trail ahead of the November 5 presidential elections.

After she told the students that she was “invested” in them, she was interrupted by a protester wearing a keffiyeh who accused her of being “invested in genocide.”

The heckler repeated the accusation that Harris had invested “billions of dollars in genocide” several more times before she acknowledged him.

“I respect your right to speak,” she said as the heckler continued to press her on “the genocide.”

“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 said to applause.

The protester continued to interrupt unabated as he was removed from the hall, and again accused her of funneling “billions of dollars” into “genocide.”

“Forty-two thousand people are dead, 19,000 children are dead,” the protester shouted, citing unverified figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip, which don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. “Nineteen thousand children are dead and you won’t call it a genocide!”

Turning back to the students, Harris acknowledged his claims, saying that “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.”

It was not immediately clear whether Harris was responding to his claim that Israel is committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip or to the assertion that “19,000 children are dead.”

Footage of the interaction was circulated on social media by the UW-Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine, and conservative media outlets and personalities interpreted her response as confirmation that she believes Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman told the New York Post that Harris had “publicly validated the false and vicious accusation that Israel is engaging in genocide.”

Friedman, who served in the role under former US president and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, accused Harris of holding a “warped, antisemitic view of Israel’s defense against Hamas barbarism,” and suggested that her brief, open-ended comment was enough to disqualify her “from holding any public office, let alone the presidency.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition also chimed in, charging that “Kamala Harris’s spreading of outrageous anti-Israel lies puts Jewish lives at risk.”

Several left-leaning and Democratic Jewish organizations pushed back against the accusations, including the group Israeli Americans for Kamala Harris, which said that the vice president had simply “recognized the protester’s right to freedom of expression” and had repeated her call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the 101 hostages held captive by Hamas.

“At no point did she agree with the protester’s statement that there is ‘genocide’ in Gaza,” the group added on X.

Anti-Israel activists demonstrate before Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at a campaign event at the business school of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Thursday, October 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign told inquiring media outlets that the statements made by the pro-Palestinian protester “don’t reflect the position of the Biden-Harris administration or the vice president’s stance.”

“She made a general statement about the need to end the war, and expressed sympathy for the genuine feelings that the issue evokes in many people,” a campaign member told Hebrew media outlet Ynet. “However, she didn’t agree with defining the war as a genocide, and she has not expressed such a stance in the past, as this is not her position.”

Harris also drew ire from anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups over the weekend, after she was asked at an event in Detroit, Michigan, whether anger at the Biden administration among pro-Palestinian Americans could cost her the election.

“There are so many tragic stories coming from Gaza, and of course, the first in the phase of everything that has happened, the first and most tragic story is October 7th, and what happened that day, and then what has happened since,” she answered.

She went on to elaborate that the atrocities committed by the Hamas terror group inside Israel last year included “1,200 innocent Israelis being slaughtered, women being horribly raped.”

She also lamented the “extraordinary number of innocent Palestinians who have also been killed” throughout the last year of war, but declined to cite the unverified figures provided by Hamas-run agencies in Gaza.

Repeating her call for a ceasefire, she said that she hoped the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar would present an opportunity to end the war.

“This creates an opening that I believe we must take full advantage of — to dedicate ourselves to ending this war and bringing the hostages home,” she said.

“As it relates to the issues in the Middle East and in particular in that region, it has never been easy. But that doesn’t mean we give up. It’s always going to be difficult. We can’t give up.”

With just over two weeks remaining until the US election, Harris and Trump are essentially tied in the most competitive states, including Michigan and Wisconsin.

Harris will need strong results in the majority non-white cities of Detroit and Atlanta and their surrounding suburbs — both of which have large Arab American and Muslim populations — to repeat US President Joe Biden’s 2020 wins in Michigan and Georgia. Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes in 2016. In 2020, Biden beat Trump by 155,000 votes.

On Friday, Harris won the endorsement of 50 prominent Lebanese-Americans, who said the US had been “unrelenting” in its support for Lebanon under the Biden administration and that they expect additional backing if Harris wins in November.

The endorsement came at a time of ongoing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, where Israel launched a limited ground operation in the south of the country, after a year of cross-border attacks carried out by the terror group.

Reuters contributed to this report

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