Vice President Kamala Harris expressed sympathy for the perspective of an anti-Israel heckler who interrupted a campaign event and falsely claimed that a “genocide” is taking place in Gaza.
Harris recently spoke to students during a campaign stop at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where a protester interrupted her speech.
“And in genocide, right? Billions of dollars in genocide you invested in?” the male demonstrator yelled after Harris mentioned how “invested” she is in the students.
“I respect your right to speak. I’m speaking right now,” Harris replied, repeating her go-to catchphrase for interruptions. She added: “I know what you’re speaking of. I want the cease-fire. I want the war to end.”
WATCH — Vice President Harris in response to a heckler screaming that Israel is committing “genocide”
“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”
(Watch videos from left to… pic.twitter.com/tZwmVIWYsk
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) October 19, 2024
The keffiyeh-clad protester continued to shout about the “genocide” until security appeared to escort him out of the event.
“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,” Harris said as the protester left the venue.
The protester seems to have been referencing the billions of dollars of aid the U.S. has provided Israel for its military campaign against Hamas following the terrorist group’s October 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli civilians and its capture of hundreds of hostages. American citizens were among those whom Hamas fighters slaughtered or took hostage.
The Gaza-casualty figures the protester cited — announced by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which progressive activists frequently cite — are unverified. The figures do not distinguish between innocent civilians whom Hamas puts into the cross fire and the Hamas fighters and operatives killed during the war. Analysts have disputed the veracity of the numbers because of how quickly they come in and the linear trajectory of the death count.
Harris was hosting an event at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s entrepreneurship center that was closed to press. Outside, pro-Hamas protesters greeted Harris’s motorcade as she arrived on campus, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Progressive protesters on college campuses and in cities nationwide often accuse the U.S. of backing an Israeli “genocide” against Palestinians. On many occasions those demonstrations have featured pro-Hamas and antisemitic slogans.
“That is not the view of the Biden-Harris Administration or the Vice President,” a Harris campaign official told the New York Post about whether Harris endorses the far-left claim that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.
Clips of the heckler were first shared on Instagram by progressive activist group UW-Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine Coalition, an organization the student appears to be affiliated with. The protest happened shortly after Israeli forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a terrorist widely considered to be the mastermind of the October 7 attacks.
Harris is attempting to court anti-Israel Muslim voters, who are dismayed by the Biden administration’s approach to the Gaza war, while retaining reliably Democratic Jewish voters who fully support Israel’s multifront fight in the Middle East.
Polls have shown that Democrats are losing Jewish voters over the party’s handling of the Gaza war and antisemitism on its leftward flank. At the same time, Democrats have to contend with the possibility of some Muslims’ voting for third-party candidates or former president Donald Trump to protest against the White House’s Israel policy.