Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Bojangles Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sept. 12, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

(JTA) — The Kamala Harris campaign said the vice president did not agree with a protester who accused Israel of genocide when she said what he was talking about is “real.”

Harris’ remarks at a Milwaukee campaign event on Saturday circulated widely in Israel and in right-wing media. In video posted by a New York Post reporter, Harris tells a protester accusing Israel of 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.” She does not use the term “genocide.”

After security has escorted out the protester, she says, “Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real. It’s real. That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real and I respect his voice.”

Republicans and some Israelis took the comment as Harris agreeing that Israel was committing genocide. “I was disturbed to view the video in which Vice President Kamala Harris appears to confirm the charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” Michael Oren, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel said on X. “This is the first time that the White House has been linked to a libel which threatens Israel’s legitimacy and security.”

In a statement to Israeli media, Harris’ campaign said Harris was not confirming a genocide was taking place.

“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,” the campaign said. “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.”

The International Court of Justice is considering a complaint by South Africa and other countries that Israel is committing genocide in how it is is conducting its war against Hamas. The Biden administration has backed Israel’s argument that the complaint is specious.

The comments on Saturday were not the first to elicit concern among some supporters of Israel that Harris is expressing solidarity with its fiercest critics. Before an August campaign event in which she asked pro-Palestinian protesters to stop interrupting her, Harris met with representatives of the “Uncommitted” movement, which encourages people to withhold their votes from her over U.S. support for the war in Gaza. Afterwards, the group said in a press release, “The Vice President shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo” on Israel.

The Harris campaign quickly issued firm and unequivocal statements saying that Harris does not support an arms embargo. But concern among her critics that she might has lingered.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount